Make A Solar Oven

Grades 4, 5, and 6

If you have a Studies Weekly teacher account, please login to access the videos and articles mentioned in the lesson plan. If you do not have a Studies Weekly teacher account, or you do not have access to the publication listed, please be our guest and use our demo account. To access your state materials, you will need to use the two letter U.S. Postal code for your state followed by “teacher.” To login with a demo account:

  • Go to
  • Usernameexample: TXteacher (for Texas teacher access), UTteacher (for Utah teacher access), etc.
  • Password: demo

Materials list:

  • Projector or document camera
  • Video –Make a Solar Oven
  • Chart paper or white board space
  • Paper and pencils
  • Pizza box
  • Stick/ruler
  • Plastic wrap
  • Tin foil
  • Black paper
  • Scissors
  • Tape
  • Computers with internet access
  • Resource books (optional)
  • Access to Studies Weekly Online
  • The Greenhouse Effect article found in the Earth Space Science-Finding Solutions weekly unit in the Science Studies Weekly- Challenger publication.

(Extension Activity)

  • Computers with internet access and microphones

Approximate time the lesson will take not including the video:

  • 1 Hour

Balanced Literacy Format:

  • Shared Reading
  • Independent Reading
  • Independent Writing

Lesson Presentation Format:

  • Whole Class
  • Small Group

Specific Strategies:

  • Observing
  • Listening
  • Note Taking

Activity:

  1. Ask your students to list several things people use to cook food. You can write these answers on the board or have students write them on their own paper. Students may give answers such as stove, oven, microwave, fire etc. You may need to give them some suggestions.
  2. Ask your students what all of these things have in common or what is the one element all of these things have that will cook food. Students should be able to come up with the answer “heat.”
  3. Ask students what the main source of heat is for our solar system. When they answer “the sun,” explain that just like an oven, the sun can be used to cook food as well. Tell your class that you are going to make a solar oven and have them make predictions about whether or not they think the solar oven will cook food. You may need to explain to your students that solar is another word for sun.
  4. Watch the video Make a Solar Oven. Pause during the video and allow students to take notes onthe concepts taught. As a class, discuss these concepts (i.e. the suns infrared rays get trapped inside the car/pizza box, rays bounce off) and have students think of some things they have noticed that are heated by the sun (i.e. cars, sidewalks, playground equipment, etc.).
  5. Build a solar oven. You may need to watch the video through several times, pausing as needed during the instructions on how to make the solar oven.
  6. Cut a flap out of the center of the lid of the pizza box out as shown in the video.
  7. Tape tin foil to the inside of the flap and to the bottom of the pizza box.
  8. Cover the hole in the lid of the pizza box with plastic wrap and tape it, making an air tight seal.
  9. Tape a piece of black paper on the bottom of the pizza box. The black paper will be on top of thetin foil.
  10. Put the food in the solar oven and prop open the reflector lid with a stick or ruler.
  11. Place the solar oven in the sun and wait. Check on your food every few minutes.
  12. While you are waiting for the food in your solar oven to cook, read the article The Greenhouse Effectfound in the Earth Space Science-Finding Solutions weekly unit in the Science Studies Weekly- Challenger publication either as a class or in small groups. As a class, discuss global warming and what students think it might mean forthe climate and weatherin your region.This may be a good time to discuss the difference between climate and weather.Discuss how the greenhouse effect is similar to the solar oven the students just built. Have students brainstorm some ideas of ways they can help slow down global warming and the greenhouse effect.
  13. If you do not have access to the Science Studies Weekly- Challengerpublication in your teacher account, please log in to the Texas demo account to access the publication. This is a 5th grade publication and you will find the article in Week 5 – Earth Space Science – Finding Solutions.
  14. Write a paragraph explaining the greenhouse effect and how it is similar to your solar oven and the way it cooksfood. Students may utilize additional resource books and the internet to find out more about the greenhouse effect.
  15. Have your students answer the following questions on their own paper:
  16. Based on what you have learned about the greenhouse effectand what you see happening in your solar oven, how correct were the predictions you made in Activity 3 about the solar oven?
  17. What are the different factors that determine if the food will cook? Factors may include, amount of time in the sunlight, amount of sunlight/clouds, outside temperature, time of day, etc.

Suggested Differentiated Instruction Tips:

  • You may choose to cook a s’more in your solar oven as shown in the video, or you can cook something else (i.e. a Hershey’s kiss, marshmallow, etc.)
  • If you have the time and materials, you can split the students into small groups and each group candesign and build their own solar oven.
  • If the materials to build the solar oven are unavailable, you can watch the video to see how a solar oven works and take a trip outside to feel the warm asphalt and talk about how the sun heats the asphalt or the metal on the playground.

Extension or Enrichment Activity:

  1. Have students go online and find a picture of a scientist they have learned about in class this year. You may want to give them a specific list of scientists to choose from.Students will save this picture to the computer.
  2. Have students write a script of what they think this scientist would say about the greenhouse effect and solar ovens.
  3. Go to Click on “make” and browse for the picture of the scientist that was saved to the computer. Follow the instructions on how to make the picture talk. Students will read the script they wrote as the mouth of the scientist moves. Note: The louder the student talks, the more the picture’s mouth will open.To learn more about this program go to log into your account > click on a publication > select a week > scroll down to K-6 General ResourcesLesson Resources Digital Developments.

Quiz:

  1. What is the greenhouse effect and how does it affect our world? Why is it called the greenhouse effect?
  2. How does the solar oven you created work like the greenhouse effect?

Answer Key/Complexity Levels:

  1. The greenhouse effect is when the sun’s heat gets trapped in earth’s atmosphere. It is making our world warmer and changing the planet’s weather patterns. It is called the greenhouse effect because greenhouses stay warm for the same reason. Heat from the sun goes in and can’t get out.

Moderate/4

  1. My solar oven has a plastic cover just like the glass in a greenhouse. It lets the heat into my oven but then traps it so it can’t get out so it heats the oven.

Moderate/4