Solar Oven

Yesterday, it was suppose to be the last over 100 degrees day in Austin (so they say) so we decided to test out our solar oven. It was also a perfect time because we just got new appliances but Andy hadn’t installed the microwave yet. Another teacher did this with my class when I was teaching 2nd grade but she used a regular cube shaped box. I used these instructions for a pizza box solar oven.

First, get a pizza box. We got ours at Austin’s Pizza and when I came in to ask for a box, the guy that worked there asked if it was for an art project or science project. I guess they get a lot of requests for free pizza boxes which made me think of how cool pizza boxes are because you can’t really use it for packing a lot of things just maybe your Wimbledon platter or uh..a pizza. Anyways, cut an opening on the top and line the inside lid with aluminum foil and tape it on. Like this:

Then open the box and line the inside with plastic wrap like this:

Finally, tape black construction paper on the bottom to absorb the sun’s rays and line the edges with crumpled newspaper to make sure the heat does not escape. I am not sure I did it how they wanted but mine looked like this:

First test was s’mores. You can see the chocolate melting first and then the marshmallows slowly melting causing the graham crackers to tilt a bit.

They said to use a stick to hold the foil flap perpendicular to the box but I couldn’t find one so I used a giant rock. Here ‘s a close-up of it in action:

After fifteen minutes, I took the plate out and it was really hot. I had to run into the house and place it down on the counter. It was a sloppy mess but oh so good.