Build a Solar Oven - some adult help required

Try this fun experiment and make your own solar oven using easy to find household items. When you’re set, you’ll be able to use the sun’s energy to cook outdoors. In this version, you can make your own S’mores. Yum!

Items Needed:

• Cardboard pizza delivery box
• Aluminum Foil
• Clear Tape
• Plastic Wrap
• Newspaper
• Scissors or utility knife (Make sure an adult helps with cutting!)
• Ruler
• Sheet of black construction paper
• Pencil
• The hot sun! (Pick a warm day, preferably above 85°F)
• Graham crackers, Marshmallows, Chocolate Bar (S’mores ingredients)
• Thermometer (Optional)

Steps:

1. Using the scissors or utility knife, with an adult’s help, cut a flap in the pizza box lid. Cut along three sides only, leaving one inch between the edge of the box and where you cut. Fold the flap out so it stands up when the box lid is closed.
2. Line the inside of the flap with aluminum foil, folding the edges of the foil over the flap to keep it in place. Tape down the foil and try to keep it as smooth as possible.
3. Lift the lid and line the inside of the box with aluminum foil – shiny side out.
4. Cover the opening made in the pizza box lid by the flap with plastic wrap. The wrap should be as airtight as possible. Tape the plastic wrap in place.
5. Next, cut a piece of black construction paper so that it’s 2 inches smaller along each edge than the bottom of the pizza box. If you have a really large pizza box, you might need more than one piece of paper.
6. Center the construction paper in the center of the bottom of the box, on top of the foil. Tape in place.
7. Take newspapers and make four rolled tubes of newspaper out of multiple sheets of paper. Each of these rolls will go along the edges on the inside of the box, creating a border. Tape the rolls in place. Be sure the rolls do not stop the lid from closing.
8. Using a pencil, create a “dent” in the box, where you can insert the pencil and use it as a “kickstand” for the lid to remain upright for cooking.
9. The solar oven is finished! Take it outside on a sunny day while the sun is high overhead, between 11 AM and 2 PM when the sun’s rays are the strongest. Put the graham cracker, topped with a piece of chocolate, and a marshmallow in the oven.
10. Close the lid. Prop up the flap you cut and lined with aluminum foil using the pencil.
11. Let the sun do its work! It will take some time, but eventually, you’ll have a melty, gooey and delicious S’more to try.

How does it work?

This is a homemade version of a collector box, so called because it collects sunlight. The sun’s rays come to earth and reflect off the aluminum foil, where they bounce directly into the opening of the box. The air under the plastic wrap heats up and cannot escape. We used the black paper because it also absorbs heat, keeping the bottom of the oven warm. The newspaper acts as an insulator, helping to keep more of the warm air inside the pizza box.

If you have a thermometer, check the inside temperature of the oven when you take out your S’more. Reposition the box as you experiment so that it faces the sunlight and can absorb that heat.

You can also try other recipes that don’t need the heat of a conventional oven – nachos and cheese, baked potatoes or chocolate sauce!

HOMEMADE WATER CLOCK: ANCIENT SCIENCE

Time for some fun water-themed science! Have you ever heard of a water clock?

A water clock was an ancient way to tell time with natural elements, similar to an hourglass or a sundial. Time is measured by the flow of water from one container to the other. It is one of the oldest ways to measure the passing of time from the ancient world of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans!

We made a homemade water clock this week and I am going to show you how I did it.

They used to make water clocks with bowls filled with water that had a hole at the bottom and was placed on a ledge above another bowl. The water poured into the second bowl.

As time went on water clocks became more advanced with gears and water wheels, eventually leading to the invention of mechanical clocks. They calibrated the water clocks with a sundial for accuracy to measure the passage of time over longer periods, such as days and nights. You can still use them to measure time today!

The water clock design we created is made out of water bottles. It is pretty cool! The water clock works like an hourglass with the water passing back and forth between the two bottles at a constant rate.

It’s so fun to create something that measures time without technology.

HOW TO MAKE A HOMEMADE WATER CLOCK:

Supplies you will need-

2 water bottles

Coffee straw/stirrer

Hot glue gun

Sharpie marker

Drill

Timer

1. Empty the water bottles and keep the lids. Using a hot glue gun, glue the tops of the two lids together.

2. Find a drill bit to match the width of your straw and drill two holes through the two caps.

3. Cut the straw in half and place them through the holes with one long and one short facing each side. Trim off the extra. And hot glue around the edges of the straw to secure them in place.

4. Fill one bottle with water and screw the lids back on to both bottles.

5. Flip the bottle over and time how long it takes the water to flow from one bottle to the other. Mark with a line at each minute. Flip them over and do the same on the other bottle so both sides have the minutes marked.

6. The water clock can be used as a regular timer for games or activities. Add colored water to make it more interesting!

It’s this a fun project? This is an awesome combination of history and science and would make an awesome STEM project!

Source - with pictures

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