So, now you have your cheap generator. Now what can you do with it? You need some sort of "load" the easiest is some sort of light bulb. The classic way is to use a 5 v miniature screw in bulb. But, these can get a bit pricey, especially when students try their hardest to crank as fast as they can to see if they can burn them out (if you've done this lab you know exactly what I'm talking about).
So, what's a cheap, lazy physics teacher to do? Well, J.D. Birchmeier has allowed me to post his "Physics of Christmas Lights" writeup on the FLOSScience site. You can often find whole strings of these that people are too lazy to troubleshoot. Just ask your students to keep their eye out for lights headed towards the trash after Christmas. Even if you don't get them for free, if you buy them after Christmas when the stores are clearing them out you can get them for just pennies/bulb. Much cheaper than through traditional science supply outlets.
The other piece that makes hand crank generators cool in class are supercapacitors. Again, if you take the easy way and go to traditional science suppliers you will likely pay around $20. However, a quick Google search will find many different suppliers of similar capacitors for under $5/each. Occasionally I've even seen some for under $2/ea (but you gotta catch them on sale).
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