Determining the Best Approach to Building a Solar-Powered Pizza Oven

                             Build It, and They Will.....Eat!!

Solar-powered pizza oven for smores

     I found this resource on the web along with a link to Bill Ferriter's blog. He is a science teacher and a strong supporter of students analyzing, synthesizing, comparing and contrasting and evaluating in every single class every single day.  The standards ask students to grapple with the concept of energy, and the notion it is neither created or destroyed. The goal of the below lesson was to help students recognize that light energy can be converted into heat energy. This teacher conducted this investigation with students right before Thanksgiving and made s'mores in the ovens. This could be ramped up with engineering concepts as students evaluate their design, and remodel for more efficiency or used as an access point to the concept of energy transfer and allow the kids an opportunity to plan, and build something.

     Let us know in the comments on the blog if you try it on with students, and how it goes. Also, if you have an idea to modify the lesson to be used in your specific program let us know! Share with your peers your successes, or challenges that arose within the project. Please share any pictures of completed solar ovens so we can add to the blog and share our students successes. 

  The below handout can be downloaded for free from the linked blog in the first paragraph or from this google doc link.

     

Energy Form and Changes Simulations to push into the topic of energy: Here

Determining the Best Approach to Building a Solar-Powered Pizza Box Oven

Over the next few days in class, we’ll be building a solar-powered pizza box oven and cooking our own S’mores.  Your group will be responsible for determining the best setup for your solar powered oven based on what you already know about energy.  Make good decisions and you’ll have delicious S’mores to eat.  Make poor decisions and you’ll be left eating cold marshmallows on hard graham cracker!

Start by watching this video outlining the steps necessary for building your solar-powered oven:  http://bit.ly/solarovensmore

Then work through the steps below to determine the best strategy for building your oven.  Remember to NOTE: Note key points, Observe options, Think it through and identify possibilities and Express your personal choice.

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Step 1:  Note all of the variables that you can control in the design of your oven. 

What options do you have in designing your pizza box oven?  What can you intentionally change about your oven design?

Variables

Step 2:  Think together and identify three variables that will be the most important to designing a successful oven.

Can you defend your choices using science knowledge gained during our energy unit?

Important Variable:	Why this Variable Matters:

EXPRESS YOUR PERSONAL CHOICE BY BUILDING AND TESTING YOUR SOLAR POWERED OVEN.  COMPARE YOUR RESULTS TO THE RESULTS OF GROUPS THAT USED A DIFFERENT OVEN DESIGN FROM YOUR OWN.

Step 3: Planning for future ovens

What changes would you make if we built another oven?  How would those changes improve your results? 

Change Needed:	Why this Change Matters: