Mokane students building solar ovens in new project

South Callaway student Reagan Arrowood makes some adjustments to her solar oven.
South Callaway student Reagan Arrowood makes some adjustments to her solar oven.

MOKANE, Mo. - Fourth-graders at South Callaway Elementary are turning up the heat while staying green.

Teachers Kathryn Zimmerman, Rawn Nash, Corrine Smart and Bryan McKay have created a project combining reading, writing, presentation skills, math, science, art and "The Launch Cycle," a modified version of the scientific method. Using all of these skills, students were challenged to form teams and build the best solar oven possible, Zimmerman said.

"This is our first year doing this project," she said. "Our 60 students started by spending time doing research and brainstorming on their own."

After the individual students developed their ideas, Zimmerman said they had to come together as a team.

"They had to come to a consensus," she said. "It was an interesting process, with some teams incorporating ideas from several members into one plan."

Zimmerman said the 15 teams then built, tested, modified and retested their designs in preparation for a May 11 presentation to parents.

"They will be using the ovens to cook s'mores," she said. "We are also having a fundraiser, where we are asking people to pledge a penny for every degree in Fahrenheit an oven goes up. That money will be donated to Solar Cookers International, which provides solar ovens to people in developing countries."

The team of Nathan Hecktor, Emily Bullard, David Dillon and Hannah Gentry built one humdinger of an oven.

"We started with foil all around the sides and black paper on the bottom," Hecktor said. "We tested black paper versus no black paper, and we found that black paper got the oven really hot."

He added their oven heated to more than 100 degrees Celsius, hot enough to boil water.

"When we first sketched the oven out, it didn't really go as planned," Hecktor said. "David brought some plexiglass to use as a lid, and that really helped."

Reagan Arrowood's oven used the power of plastic wrap to great effect.

"When I started, I lined the box with tin foil and black paper," she said. "That got the oven to 75 degrees Celsius. When I started to modify the oven, I used plastic wrap as a lid. That got immediate results."

Arrowood said the plastic wrap creates a mini greenhouse in her oven.

"The plastic wrap lets in the light while trapping the heat," she said. 

"Now, I think my oven will get into the 80s or 90s."