Unfortunately for me right now the skies are dark and no sun to speak of. However I was able to use a heat lamp to produce the needed temperature increase and the fake sun. I hope to use the real sun with my students. 
Yes, it definitely sounds as if our roles are very similar! I do have my 4th graders for 70 min once a week, although first thing in the morning. I have also thought about doing this as a multi-week project (possibly constructing one week and testing the next).
I tried out a parabolic solar cooker and it worked. Although being in South Florida May have been an unfair advantage! LOL
We do solar cookers every year so it will be easy to add to the project. I think it will add a nice technology component to this project and make it a bit more challenging!
I agree, the students will definitely need guidance on proper assembly. They are so used to rushing and not paying attention to detail, this activity will definitely have them practicing accuracy and patience in order to have a successful project.
Managed to reset it and get it into a solar oven. The challenge this morning was, because reaching pasteurization of water(65 degrees Celsius) was criteria for this project, my competitive students did not want to open their ovens to let me get this situated And, every jostle changes the display. Also, the first couple tries the display froze. I reasoned that the Aluminum linings might be shorting the battery and looked for another surface in an oven to lay it on. After success in their water pasteurization, students made sāmores heating the marshmallows in the oven, so I was able to use this oven with the plate over the pan of water after the sāmores had been made. I had to open the glass top to get the pic, but I think you can read that even in the short time(10 min) I gave it we got pretty warm.
Yes, there are many more pieces to figure out and handle just so compared to a temperature only probe, but you also can evaluate us and luminosity which can help you place the oven and deepen the data collection for atmospheric studies.
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Great troubleshooting! I agree that you may be shorting the Arduino/Seeeduino on the Aluminum. If the Arduinoās through-hole pins touch a metal surface it can short the board and will cause it to turn off and/or reboot, the board and some times your entire computer if it is plugged in with USB. The Arduino and the computer should be just fine if this happens but can disrupt your experiment.
This is definitely going on the list for summer school projects. In the past they made solar ovens and just timed how long it took to cook things. With the sensors, they will get the data that they need to make better conclusions about their oven designs. I canāt wait to see what they come up with! In the past we used heat lamps for this kind of experiment, but I really want to get the students outside for this. And being a math teacher, the data is the thing! (and the sāmoresā¦ the data AND the sāmores!)
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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
We donāt do solar ovens but this might have several learning opportunities during the energy and weather lessons. I can measure temperature and luminosity at a specific time during the year thought the year. We can also use it if a student feels sick we can pre-measure the temperature. We can also do a research lesson to measure the accuracy by using a sample of students with the nurse and the sensor.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
The programing section is simple by using the computer display. I would like to have the written sections in paper so they can do the predictions.
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?
Students designing their own research questions using temperatures.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentās role during the class. What does āstudent successā look like?
If there is an opportunity to conduct an activity with a balloon to measure the temperature at higher altitudes. Success could be the predictions and questions that the students might produce.
After state testing is done I have some time set aside for cool science activities and projects which donāt necessarily fit into my curriculum. This activity sounds perfect for that and I am slotting it in. This lesson could have fit into my scope and sequence earlier in the year when we did specific heat and calorimetry.
My students would probably be very successful in this lesson with minimal intervention. We already do several engineering project and have used the temperature sensors already.
My role during this lesson would be to provide support to groups of students and keep students on task. Once introducing the activity and providing students with instructions they should be able to follow the activity with minimal intervention.
Students would be expected to follow instructions and safety precautions and work in a cohesive small group.
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If you are involving a balloon in the solar oven experiment, it could also be a cool chance to put a cold inflated balloon in the oven and see if it expands. You could teach about how gases change density and volume based on temperature and even through in some measurements of circumference and radius and volume calculations!
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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)?
With my 60+ hour a week schedule, I finally had time to build the oven. You could evaluate different materials for insulating properties and heat/solar energy transfer properties. For example, does plastic wrap work as well as plastic sheeting, or glass? Which colors which absorb or reflect heat? What makes better insulator foam, cardboard, duck board, etc? The research, design, and constriction of the solar cooker is an engineering project in itself. It would take a couple of class periods to do this activity.
I didnāt really follow any of the suggested ones in the video, I just made my own. I adjusted code for a temperature of 160 degrees F to actuate the alarm/buzzer. The ambient temperate was 86.7 degrees F, was able to get a max of 131.1 degrees F, but no buzzer. Due to partly cloudy skies, the selected day was not optimal. Tried again the next day, the ambient temperate was 86.7 degrees F, was able to get a max of 161.5 degrees F, and the buzzer actuated.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
Just like the video, we would have to review the concepts of solar energy and how it can be harnessed to cook. We would have to also look at colors and insulating proprieties of materials.
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 have to do some direct instruction with this activity. I would have to cover the solar theory, insulators, colors, so we would have to do more scaffolding. They may be using tools and materials to construct an oven, so lab/shop safety would need to be addressed.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentās role during the class. What does āstudent successā look like?
My courses are mostly project-based learning (PBL), so students are in charge of their own learning. This would definitely be a team activity of 2-3 students. Success would be all members of the team being able to complete activity, understand solar theory, program, and critically evaluate the design and success of their project. They would need to understand why or why didnāt their project work and have ideas to improve upon or allow the project to work.
I was able to get 165 after about 25 minutes, but there were some clouds. I had to try a second day to get the higher temp.
That is the problem with solar of any type. You have to be in the right climate to use it. In Florida, lots of people have solar heating for their pools and many are starting to get solar for electricity. I am still not sure whether the cost vs savings is there for electricity unless you are planning to stay in your home for decades.
Good thing you did not short the boardā¦you might have lost it. Aluminium wiring was or is used in homesā¦its a conductor. That is a teachable moment for the studentsā¦and allows them to see (even for teachers) sometimes things donāt go as planned:thinking:.
This lesson is getting closer to the sort of thing we want to be able to do with microcontrollers and sensors. There are so many variations on the pizza box theme - size, shape, color, angle, etc., and being able to monitor efficiency is key. I need to spend some time unpacking the code, but as it stands, we could really use this. Students have 1:1 chromebooks so they can log data, but I want to get to the point where the microcontroller/sensor/battery can be packaged with some sort of memory device. That then could be taken to a computer and uploaded.
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One thing I forgot to mention is that we aim for original student work rather than cook book activities. The initial encounter with this lesson will give my students the confidence to use this temperature sensing tool to build their own system. Environmental Science and Engineering is our focus, and there are tons of devices for sale that can monitor phenomena for us. But we want to build our own and learn by doing so. Engineering is designing tools to understand and solve problems, and this lesson could easily extend several weeks. I think it is very cool and intend to extend way beyond the cook book.
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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)?
I would use this lesson weather permitting with my middle schoolers by the end of the year. I have used in the past the solar oven project with my sixth graders in Morocco. It was the right climate for it. The students tried to cook a raw egg. It took 10 minutes for the egg to cook. I would add the technology component to it. It will be more fun and exciting.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
The students will need additional support in knowing how solar energy and insulators work.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentās role during the class. What does āstudent successā look like?
My Middle Makers students are free to choose their own project, but from time to time, they run out of ideas and ask my help.
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Thanks for sharing your design! I also like the incorporation of using plastic sheeting to compare with other insulators.
You can also use the battery and OLED display if you want it to be more wireless.