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Students experiment with alternative energy uses by making, testing, and using solar cookers.

Join the 21st Century Solar Cooking Movement! Become a Chef using a solar cooker of your own design. Have you ever heard the expression: “It’s hot enough to fry an egg on a sidewalk?” Cooking on the sidewalk is most likely not the best way to cook, so why not try solar cooking? What exactly is solar cooking? A solar cooker (oven) is a box that traps some of the Sun’s energy to make the air inside the box hotter than the air outside the box. In other words, a solar oven is like a super greenhouse. By using only household items and a box, you can harness the sun's energy to heat up a tasty treat. Plus, you will learn about absorption, insulation, and the sun's energy. But why learn about solar cooking? When people join the solar cooking movement, they are:

1. Helping people cook in the developing world, so decreasing instances of malnutrition.
2. Preventing deforestation.
3. Preventing pollution and 
4. Even though solar cookers take longer to cook food people are using something that is easy to run.

Some facts about solar cooking: 
• There are over 100,000 solar cookers being used in both India and China
• More than 5000 families in Kenya are using solar cookers because of Solar Cookers International
• Developing countries are fuel poor but sun rich
• In the Touloum Refugee Camp in Chad, Africa, 5,000 women have been trained to use solar cookers
and about 16,000 have been distributed.

If all of these reasons haven’t convinced you then remember it is a ton of FUN!!!

Asa participant , you are invited to experiment with alternative energy uses by making, testing and using solar cookers. Recipes, construction tips, experiments and research findings will be shared on line and compiled on a web site.

A) Students can design original solar oven

B) Students will compare insulation materials

C) Students can compare panel cookers to box cookers

D) Students can compare heat trap materials

E) Students can compare the effects of climate changes on solar cooking

F) Students can create an advertisement for solar cooking

G) Students can debate the use of solar cookers

H) Students can write letters to local newspapers about the benefits of using solar energy

I) Students can create a web page about solar cooking

J) Students can write and present a public service announcement for radio or TV about the need to conserve energy, deforestation issues in third world countries, the problems with fossil fuels, the greenhouse effect, or global warming

K) Students can create a mural depicting the history of solar energy

L) Students can write and perform a play or skit about the importance of solar cooking

M) Students can create and perform raps or songs about how solar cooking works

N) Students can compile a solar cookbook with tips on converting standard recipes to solar oven recipes

O) Students can create board games focusing on solar energy facts

Student contributions will be posted on a web site.

Learning about alternative energy options that will preserve trees , reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, all while improving health and relieving burdens caused by fuel shortages. The project will also teach students about alternative ways to provide nutritional meals and create a environment that addresses a reduction in hunger and malnutrition , as well as a potential source of clean water.

Related Project SDGs:

3. Good Health & Wellbeing

5. Gender Equality

6. Clean Water & Sanitation

7. Affordable & Clean Energy

17. Partnerships for Global Goals

Science, Social Studies, Art, English, Math

My Hero Project Feature
Resource for Building Solar Ovens
Solar Ovens in Senegal
Sample Project Plan for Grade 8 from USA