Hi everyone. I am very new to the world of microcontrollers so I barely know anything. I have a quick question: Is a 9.6V 2000mAh battery ok to power my arduino uno board? And I would just have to connect the ground and the positive wires directly into the arduino ground and Vin pins right? I want to make sure before I do it so as not to burn up my board. Thank you for taking your time to help out a complete noob.
It all depends what is connected to the board , a few servos or relays will draw more than 10 LED's (depending on type of LED 
Add up all what is connected for a particular project and you can compare it to the battery.
Thanks a lot for the help. I really appreciate it.
amateur:
Hi everyone. I am very new to the world of microcontrollers so I barely know anything. I have a quick question: Is a 9.6V 2000mAh battery ok to power my arduino uno board? And I would just have to connect the ground and the positive wires directly into the arduino ground and Vin pins right?
Yes, it will work...depending on what you're going to connect to it. If you try to suck maximum current out of every Arduino pin then you might run into problems.
PS: Poking a wire into the Vin connector will work but you'll get a much solid connection with a proper power connector plug.