Hot Stuff – Lesson 8 – Building a model solar oven

Working in groups, students design and build a pizza box solar oven, which they test out in a separate lesson. They could also then document their work – an evaluation of how well their oven worked – in a poster, PowerPoint or other presentation.

Students will:

• use scientific principles relating to sunlight and heat to build a pizza box solar oven
• create a sequence of steps to solve a given task
• select and safely use appropriate materials and equipment to make the oven
• (optional) after testing the solar oven, document their work and evaluation of the success of their oven design, in a poster or presentation

• This lesson is an ideal activity for the end of the year when reports are completed and the days are normally clear and warm to hot.
• Contact the manager of your local pizza store and ask if they could donate 10 empty pizza boxes (or sufficient for one per student group), or else obtain similar sized cardboard boxes.
• Set up a construction space with protective mats or old newspapers.

Per group:

• one new pizza box
• access to construction materials and tools
  • masking tape, black paper or card
  • safety cutters, scissors, ruler
  • plastic wrap (e.g., Glad Wrap) and aluminium foil
  • stick to hold the lid open

Inform students that they will work in groups to build a solar oven from a pizza box and introduce the learning intentions of this lesson using Lesson 8 of the Hot Stuff PowerPoint. Remind students of the design process they should be familiar with.

Brief review of photons, phonons, and insulation as applied to solar ovens:

• Ask students to think back to Lesson 3 when they learnt about the Sun giving off huge amounts of energy in the form of photons.
• Why are photons so important? (they carry the energy from the Sun to Earth; some turn into phonons which warm things up).
• Review the basic concepts of phonons
• Review insulation

Ensure that, throughout this activity, you use the language of phonons, photons, atoms, and molecules in your discussions with students.

Part 1: Students design their pizza box oven

Students should work within their groups to describe the task so all team members are very clear about their role.

Students research the task by finding useful information about the best way to design their pizza box solar oven. There are many excellent websites to explore for ideas about the best Solar Pizza Oven designs. Three very good designs are listed below. Provide any or all of these as examples after students have had time to think about their own designs or if students have difficulty finding or coming up with appropriate designs.

• Home Science Tools
  https://www.homesciencetools.com/article/how-to-build-a-solar-oven-project/
• Instructables
  https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Pizza-Box-Solar-Oven/
• Fizzics Education
  https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/150-science-experiments/heat-experiments/pizza-box-solar-oven-2/

Understanding and analysing what was found in their research is a very important step in the design process.

Most of the examples provided have similar design features. Students should discuss each of these in their groups and record information in their group report. Prompt students with the following questions:

Part 2: Students develop their plan

Now the task is for students to turn their ideas into a pizza box oven.

Working in their teams, students use the ideas they found through their research and information from the class discussion to develop their plan to build their pizza box oven.

Students should draw their plan. They could show and label:

• the square hole they plan to cut out
• the way their cut-out square will fold back and what they do to help it reflect photons into the oven
• the clear plastic cover for the oven
• the black card oven floor
• any other special design features that they include – their own ideas or ideas from their website research

They should briefly say why each feature is needed – its function.

Finally, each group should check with their teacher to confirm their plan.

Part 3: Teams build their pizza box oven

Ensuring that group members have assigned their group roles, each group’s Manager should collect the equipment they need.

Working in teams, student use their plan to guide their work.

Danger: Ensure students are very careful with the safety cutter. Some teachers may ask that they or an adult helper work with students to do the cutting out of the box lid.

Students work out which team members will do each part of the construction ensuring the tasks are shared equally and that they work together.

Remind students to ensure that they follow the plans that they drew up.

Presentation

Each group should document what they did, including an evaluation of the success of their design, as a poster display, PowerPoint or other presentation.

Once students have constructed their solar ovens, have each group pack their ovens away and inform them that we will be using them in an associated extension STEM lesson, on a suitable sunny day.