Solar Oven Experiment #1593

Weather is indeed a factor. Although winter is always obviously cooler, this year has just seen a lot of rain with very cloudy weather so agreed that a different time would be better.

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Hadnā€™t thought of that, but unfortunately Iā€™m in a concrete block ā€œbunkerā€. Weā€™d have to come up with a way to periodically collect data remotely, especially during winter.

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Iā€™m a day late getting this one done. Weather was not cooperative, lost power, driveway looks like an icy luge run. But- I put it together this morning. It was very straightforward and easy to do- aside from trying to tape plastic wrap. I cannot get the data to go to my computer, but the OLED display is working well. Not sure what the problem is on the other sketch- will have to troubleshoot. It is very cloudy with snow predicted, so doing this outside would not work. I have it on a table with a small reading lamp pointing to the foil. Not getting much temp rise- staying at 81 F, not much movement. *** Edit- patience is a virtue- up to 100.7 So- that says to me- do a better build- use clearer plastic- not so wrinkled up, tighten the insulation. I donā€™t have black construction paper- so I used a garbage bag- probably not as absorbent- reflecting light. I think this is an excellent project for kids to work on at school- as a collaborative exercise, an engineering design process exercise and of course the science.

Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
At this time of year ā€¦ nope. However, as we start the year and talk about the history of technology, Iā€™m sure Iā€™d be able to fit it, or something similar, into the curriculumā€¦

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
My younger elementary kids will need taping helpā€¦ They also need assistance to figure out the angles

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
I like the group/job ideas in the slide show and would use those.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentā€™s role during the class. What does ā€œstudent successā€ look like?
I would love this to be successful in that they actually heat something up enough to ā€œcookā€, but it would also be successful if the kids can take on the various roles, troubleshoot and use the EDP.

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?
Heat transfer is covered in the next month or so, and climate and weather gets covered in April. Therefore, this fits right in.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
The sensor placement is hard to keep consistent, and I have been consistently running into tech issues.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
I would make sure my students are making predictions that are testable, as well as encourage them to focus on real world uses of the lesson.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentā€™s role during the class. What does ā€œstudent successā€ look like?
My students would look successful if they are interested in pursuing this activity outside of the classroom.

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?

This does not fit in my curriculum this year, but next year I am teaching a STEM Course full time and it will then! I would use this in my grade 7 STEM course next year. It would be a perfect fit in transformations of energy.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to successful?
When I had a student volunteer run through this they picked it up quickly with little explanation needed. We have set this up to complete when the weather cooperates.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?

I would be responsible for facilitating and questioning as students work through the challenge.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentā€™s role during the class. What does ā€œstudent successā€ look like?

Student success is engaged students directing themselves and learning from exploration. I also think students wanting to take the experiment a step further or try something else is a sign of success skills.

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I am really excited to do try this with my students as soon as the sun decides to stay out a bit longer. I love all the ideas so many of you have posted and will be adopting some of them. We are going to put it out in a second just for fun to get the data and then do it again in the spring, summer, and fall and talk about our findings! Loved the webinar thank you so much!

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I canā€™t wait to try this with my STEAM club students once we get some sun! Polar vortex had students home 4 days last week, but I will definitely try this out as soon as we can.

I appreciate the slide show with the roles of the students along with instructions: Electrical Engineer, Solar Engineer, Scientist.

Thank you also for recording the video so it could watch later as well as over again. There are a lot of real-world connections that students will find interesting and engaging - wood burning stoves used around the world vs solar energy; the hot car scenario. Again the inclusion of resources such as WolframAlpha are great!

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Montana has created standards that are similar to NGSS; however, there are three dimensions that are supposed to be applied across the science and other subjects including: disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices (this is where our STEM is basically located), and crosscutting concepts. In addition to that, we also need to add in Indian Education for All (IEFA). We do not have a specific location for this lesson, but there are several locations that we could add in this lesson, especially using the 3 dimensions. This includes: developing and using models and analyzing and interpreting data.
Students would need extra help with preparing ovens (teamwork would help with this) and also with the wiring. I would use large print C/F thermometers.
My middle school students struggle with building objects because they become so afraid of failing that they are afraid of trying! As a result, I would be a bit more involved with helping students setup projects. Due to the time it takes to prepare everything and then heat up the oven, I want to be a bit more purposeful in ensuring success. Typically, I like the process of retrying. This lesson could cause students to shutdown.
I would hear thoughtful questions and excited student chatter as they create their solar ovens.

We have a group of three teachers that are hoping to start a STEM/STEAM type of club this upcoming year. Solar ovens would be a great project and then residential students could take them home and use them to cook dinner for the cottages on Saturday.

How long have you had a STEAM Club and what are some of the successful activities that you have done during club time?

This was a fun project, especially because I now have sā€™mores on the brain and am thinking Iā€™ll build solar ovens for our last GATE lunch bunch of the year and have the kids cook their own after a discussion around reflectors, transmitters, absorbers and insulators : )

My reading on the OLED was 85F before taking the solar oven outside. I assumed it would take around ten minutes to get up to 104F (40C)ā€¦ yeah, that was not even close. That little box heated up to 104F in about 38 seconds.

I live in So Cal, so itā€™s a VERY SUNNY day, a wonderful 70F, very little wind factoring in to ambient temperature, and I tested at 1:00pm. Iā€™m interested to know how cohorts from other parts of the country come out on this. It would be fun to share your results with my students before we cook our sā€™mores and to compare my results from today with the results weā€™ll see under the same conditions, but warmer, in May when I plan to do this with them - itā€™s generally safe to assume weather conditions will be fairly consistent in this part of the country (think back to Steve Martin as the weatherman in ā€œLA Storyā€ pre-recording his weather forecasts!).

The kids will also like the OLED display for this with the extra element of programming the arduino - much more fun than putting a plain old thermometer in the box.

Also, to answer question about what I could have done better (which I assume means heat faster and maintain highest possible temperature), hereā€™s what Iā€™m thinking:
After shutting box, seal all seams further
More insulation
Be more scientifically accurate aiming reflection of sun to maximize reflector

*** Will post separately on sunglasses project.

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Wowā€“38 seconds to reach 104F? You must have designed a great solar oven!

I know - it was surprising. For kicks, I left it out for 10 minutes to see where the temp would land after my original time estimate. It maxed at 159F in 10 minutes of direct sunlight.

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Sounds like youā€™ll definitely want to try this with the sā€™mores if youā€™re getting to that temp!

I really like this concept, not just for an oven but for an overall temperature measurement. I thought that it would take a little longer then it actually did to raise the temperature. I did not make a box because it was dark and rainy however I did use a hair dryer to raise the temp and found it pretty responsive. I look forward to trying it on a hot summer day to see the temp in my car or how hot it can be on the sidewalk.

Just out of curiosity, how hot did it get with the hair dryer?

Failure is still learning! I think thatā€™s an important lesson that they can learn. Even if they are successful the first time, what can they do to make improvements the next time around? That discovery process is so key!

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?

This experiment could be a great extended learning project in the Innovation Lab. Our 5-6 grade students would appreciate this lesson. It is another example of different ways we can code a variety of inputs.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?

Our students study coding in the Innovation Lab on a consistent basis. I foresee working with the classroom teacher and science specialist who would like to extend the unit on energy to include this hands-on-experiment.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class.

I would be responsible for gathering all the materials, demonstrating the setup, coding, and troubleshooting. During the experiment, I would check for understanding and encourage groups to describe their progress using coding terminology.

What does ā€œstudent successā€ look like?
Student success would be setting up the experiment, and cooking food with the solar oven. Also, as far as coding goes, students would be able to identify and explain the process, vocabulary, and outcome. Also, throughout the process, when the experiment does not go as planned, students would be able to use computational thinking to troubleshoot.

Indeed a fun activity. Weā€™ve been talking about solar energy and heat in grades 3, 4, and 5 but weā€™ve never really done something engineering wise. This activity could serve as design challenge. We have Vernier probes to monitor temperature, but two types of sensors are better than one. Student success will be measured by their ability to explain their design, and also by proposing/making changes to improve it. My role would be to question their design ideas and have them recall how light reflects, and why we use aluminum foil.

I agree that computational thinking to troubleshoot is important. It is quite hard for some students to persevere when they hit a brick wall or things donā€™t go as planned. This is important as the lesson itself. Now cooking food is a great idea, along with any other use of the solar oven.

Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum? This experiment would fit in well with our marine tech summer camp. We are always trying to make our activities hands-on and to get our students outside in the environment. Love the portability of the kit components for them to be able to meet both of those needs.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
Extra support for this lesson would need to be with laptop access. We have an indoors computer lab for students, which would work great if the activity could be done inside (and we could hook up some heat lamps or use a heat gun and do that, but outside is ALWAYS better!), but we donā€™t have enough departmental laptops to give one to each group of students.
We have discussed purchasing a classroom set of chromebooks or tablets and this activity would support the benefit of a purchase like that.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. My role as the facilitator would be to prepare the materials in advance and to introduce the concept of solar energy to the students. Video provided could also be used as an intro.

What does ā€œstudent successā€ look like? Student success looks like the students exploring the engineering design process with their ovens, collecting data, and sharing with the group about their predictions verses their actual data.