Cooking with the Sun - Creating a Solar Oven
Student groups are given a set of materials: cardboard, insulating materials, aluminum foil and Plexiglas, and challenged to build solar ovens. The ovens must collect and store as much of the sun's energy as possible. Students experiment with heat transfer through conduction by how well the oven is insulated and radiation by how well it absorbs solar radiation. They test the effectiveness of their designs qualitatively by baking some food and quantitatively by taking periodic temperature measurements and plotting temperature vs. time graphs. To conclude, students think like engineers and analyze the solar oven's strengths and weaknesses compared to conventional ovens.
A solar oven built by middle school students.Copyright 2004 Paul Klenk, Duke University
The design, construction and testing of solar ovens is an engineering project that combines materials science with mechanical engineering through harnessing heat transfer mechanisms. Solar ovens are in use worldwide, providing fuel-free and smoke-free cooking, baking and water decontamination especially helpful in remote and poor regions.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain the concept of radiation and give examples of ways that the sun's energy can be collected and stored for useful purposes.
- Explain that certain materials do not conduct heat well and are therefore good for insulation.
- Give examples of different materials that can be used for collecting and storing heat energy from the sun.
- Plot and analyze temperature vs. time data.