Explore Alternative Energy

Students are in an outdoor adventure group traveling to Yuma, Arizona for a camping trip. While camping, they must utilize the sun’s energy to cook two dishes in a solar cooker. Using the engineering design process as a guide, students research fundamental principles related to solar cookers including solar energy, temperature, heat, greenhouse effect, absorption, and reflection. They learn about three different types of solar cookers which leads them to designing, building, and testing their own cooker. This kit contains enough materials for 10 groups. Access to curricula materials can be found at http://www.nicerc.org.

Materials in this kit include: stop watch, thermometer, aluminum foil, poster board, cotton balls, bubble wrap, cling wrap, plastic bags, glass jars, plastic cups, paper plates, foam board, black paint, and cardboard boxes.