Fifth Grade is Heating UP!

Our fifth grade students are putting their engineering and problem solving brains to work and things are HEATING UP!!  Mrs. Hernandez’s Class has been learning and exploring the effects of heat on an object.  Last week, they were investigating radiation as a heat source.  Students had already learned about conduction and insulation in previously weeks.  To start the lesson they were posed with a question or problem… How did people heat their food before appliances?? How can you cook with the Sun??

To discover the answer, students got in collaborative groups to investigate and construct a device that would use the sun to cook food.  They learned that they would need to build a device that would reflect, absorb, and trap by insulation the suns heat.  Each group was able to create a solar oven using a cardboard box, tin foil, and black paper.  Once each group had their oven constructed they shared their designs with the class.  Students then tested their solar ovens outside by placing a cup of water with a thermometer in it.  They left their oven for an hour and then recorded the temperature change.  A control oven was placed in the shade with a cup of water and thermometer.  After an hour in the Sun, the solar ovens were a success!!  The highest temperature change in one of the ovens was an increase of 10 degrees Celsius!  At the end of the lesson students were able to explain what types of heat transfer occurred to cause the temperature to rise.

Here are some of the solar ovens the class created.

Building their Solar Oven

Adding tin foil and black paper

Testing their oven

Setting up and testing their oven

Waiting on their results