Science Experiment: Making Solar Ovens

Objective To study the ways humans benefit from the natural resources of the sun, giving them a hands-on activity representing harvesting solar power. Things to Keep in Mind Before getting into making a solar oven, it could be helpful to go over how the sun works and provide a little background on the solar system.  Other background topics could include the history of how humans viewed sun and solar system, or information about the solar and lunar cycles. Reading Up Beforehand The best way to prepare for making a solar oven is to do a little reading on comparative cooking times and temperatures for different foods.  Find pre-cooked foods that won’t rely on solar heat to heat them to a certain standard temperature.  Simple recipes like cheese nachos are great for the solar oven. Materials Cardboard box (a pizza box is a good candidate for a solar oven since it is relatively thin with a wide inner area for better heat trapping) Aluminum foil for heat trapping Clear plastic wrap Tape or other fixing materials Student Research In groups of 4-6 according to class size, let students draw their own models for making a solar oven.  Monitor and suggest tips as necessary.  Ask groups the following questions: How to get the most of the sun’s heat into the oven? How the food will go inside the oven? How long students estimate it will take to heat up food? Project Setup For best results, set up solar ovens on a sunny morning, the earlier, the better.  Make sure students are following these steps: taping foil to the inside bottom of the box covering the foil with black paper and taping it cutting a top flap in the box about an inch from the edges to open covering the inside of the flap with foil and taping it putting the plastic across the open area and taping it, making sure it is tight and seals air in Experiment with different kinds of food and have students record progress.  Plan some other activities to do in between monitoring, as food takes some time to heat.  Plan for at least double the time of a conventional oven. Follow Up As a follow up activity, students can write about other ways the sun could be used to generate energy for human use.