Solar Power

Our Trash Bag Solar Balloon

I've been wanting to buy one of these from the Steve Spangler site but haven't done it yet and then I saw a website on how to make your own so the kid and I decided to try to make one at the park.  We cut the bottom off of 2 trash bags and taped them together along with a third trash bag.  This made a great, big, long balloon.  We tried some kite string to one end so it can't get away and then left the sun heat the air inside the balloon and were hoping to watch it fly up, up, up but it turned out to be too windy and so it wasn't able to get much height.  We're going to try again on a much less windy day and, of course, make sure we're not anywhere near power lines.

never got too high off the ground this time but just wait until next time

Check out some of this guy's balloons.

     

Solar Powered Pop

Ethan was convinced that he could pop a water balloon using solar power but I didn't think it would be possible, but he was right - it worked!

Solar Oven

Today was a nice hot day so we decided to try to make a solar oven.  We didn't have all the supplies or the patience to make it the "right way" so we just adlibbed.  

         

We placed sheets of black construction paper in the bottom of a pizza box and the placed a pie plate and thermometer in it.  We "preheated" it for about 15 minutes and got the temperature to 160 degrees.

We placed slices of garlic bread sprinkled with cheese in our solar oven and set up a "control" experiment alongside it.  We placed bread and cheese in a similar casserole dish on black paper but without an "oven".  We thought this would show us how using the box actually made the food cook rather than just melt from being in the sun.

         

The results: After 30 minutes, the "oven" make the cheese nice and gooey and the bread nice and warm.  The pie plate was too hot to touch.  The "control" bread was very dry and the cheese was also dry and brittle.  It was disgusting to try.  The casserole dish was just warm and no problem to touch.  The heat wasn't enough to register anything on the thermometer.

How to make a pizza box solar oven

Solar oven project in a blog

We also burned leaves with magnifying glasses today.  Fun!

    

Solar Power

learning how to direct solar power with a magnifying glass	trying it out on a small pile of leaves	it works!	attempting to pop popcorn
too direct - only burned a hole in the husk	trying to boil water	roasting...uh...burning a marshmallow	roasting marshmallows over a magnifying glass started mini fire

How to make a pizza box solar oven

Solar oven project in a blog

Our solar oven page

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