Hunger Games - Engineering Design Process
Solar Oven Activity
1. Ask Or Identify the Problem
While in the arena, you have developed alliances with several other tributes and among your group you have graham crackers, marshmallows, and Hershey bars. Your mission is to design and build a solar oven to cook your own S’mores simply using a cardboard box and a few extra materials that you found at the Cornucopia. Your solar oven must meet the following specifications:
· It must have a “footprint” of no more than 40 cm x 40 cm.
· In 10 minutes, the temperature inside the box must increase by 15° C.
· You may use any available materials to line the bottom and inside of the box.
· Your food may not touch the bottom of the oven directly. You must find a way to best cook two S’mores off of the bottom surface.
· You must cook the two S’mores at two different heights. You will also test which height allows the food to cook at a faster rate.
Review Research – compare the effectiveness of different materials available based on physical properties of the materials (thermal conductivity, heat capacity, and thermal diffusivity)
2. Imagine – Brainstorm Ideas and analyze the options
Come up with a list of ideas for constructing your solar oven. Create particle diagrams to illustrate each property of matter & the differences between each material as it is heated to help you choose your design.
3. Plan – Draw a diagram & gather needed materials
Before you construct – sketch your plan for the solar oven (label parts) & gather additional supplies that you might need. Include a written description & particle diagram drawing of how the design works. Describe how you will meet the design constraint of the food not touching the bottom surface of the solar oven. Predict how the height of your food from the bottom surface will affect how quickly it is cooked.
4. Create – Follow the Plan. Test it Out!
Construct your solar oven and test how it works. Be sure to meet the minimum specifications. Experiment and record detailed results over at least a 10-minute time period. Decide as a group how long you will give your oven to “preheat”.
5. Improve – Discuss what you can do to make your solar oven work better. Repeat steps 1-5 to make changes as time permits.
Present your Prototype and Data Results to the group.
Concluding Writing Activity
Make a claim about the quality of the cooking material that you used to design your solar oven based upon evidence from your reading materials and the evidence you collected in your experiment. What were the specific strengths and weaknesses of the design? How would you improve the design assuming that you had no limitations on the materials available? Support your claims and reasoning with the use of annotated sketches.
CCSS-Literacy and Science ITQ, July 2014
Activity adapted from NASA “Build A Solar Oven” & INVEST Specific Heat Lessons