ScienceSource.ca Dry Lab Activity

Unit D - Chapter 11

Investigating Science 10

Inquiry Activity

Design and Build a Solar Cooker

Skills Reference 2

Skills you Will Use

  • Using appropriate equipment and tools
  • Drawing conclusions

Safety

  • Sharp Objects
  • Goggles

Caution

This activity requires the use of thermometers and sharp objects. Be careful not to poke or cut yourself. Wear goggles to protect your eyes.

A solar cooker is a device that uses light from the Sun as its energy source. The solar cooker transforms sunlight directly into heat that is used for cooking.

Optics play a large role in the effectiveness of a solar cooker. The shape of the solar cooker must maximize the number of rays of sunlight that reflect toward a central point where the food is placed.


Question

What is the best shape for a solar cooker?


Materials and Equipment

  • scissors
  • 3 dowels
  • 3 sheets of aluminum foil
  • 3 sheets of oak tag paper (file folder paper)
  • glue
  • tape
  • 3 thermometers

Dry Lab

A "dry lab" activity includes collected data and/or a video solution for your convenience. You can simply watch the following video and use the provided data, or if you wish to perform this lab for yourself, follow the procedure steps 1 through 6 described in the video. The same steps are included in written form in the documents available for download on the bottom of this page.



Analyzing and Interpreting

  1. A student performing the procedure steps 1 through 6 recorded the following temperatures. Do these results indicate the best shape for a solar cooker? Explain.

    2. Shape

    Start Temp (Celsius)

    Final Temp (Celsius)

    V-shape

    35

    40

    U-shape

    35

    42

    Flat

    35

    37


Skill Practice

  1. Design an activity that tests the actual cooking effectiveness of different solar cooker shapes.

Forming Conclusions

  1. What is the best shape for a solar cooker? Does your conclusion make sense in when considering the principles of optics you have been studying?