100 Day of Science #39-- Making Solar S'mores

For three or so summers now I have been wanting to make a solar oven using a pizza box.  I knew my boys would enjoy the yummy s'mores treats we could make inside and it would be a fun science lesson about solar heat too but somehow we've just never gotten around to it.

We had takeout pizza over the weekend and one of our boxes was pretty clean so I nabbed it and tucked it away waiting for a nice hot, sunny day.  After 4 or 5 days of rain we finally had sun in the forecast so we dragged out all our supplies and got to work.

First we used a ruler and an X-Acto knife to cut a flap out of the top of the pizza box.

Then we lined the inside bottom of the box with black paper taping the papers down in a few places as needed. Black paper helps absorb the sunlight.

We wrapped foil around the flap we had just cut out to help reflect any sunlight back into the center of our oven.  We held the foil in place with tape where needed.

Then we lined our opening with clear seran wrap; taping up all 4 sides to trap in the heat and keep any bugs from finding their way in.

Our oven is all ready for us to put our food inside!

We put graham crackers down and topped them with some Hershey's chocolate and a marshmallow.

Then we set our oven out in the sunlight and ended up using our ruler to prop open our reflector panel.

Within just 30 minutes we could see the chocolate melting.

Since it was only 80 out we did keep our s'mores out in the sun for 2 hours.  While our oven was quite warm and was great at trapping the heat inside it takes a whole lot of heat to melt marshmallows.

We brought them inside and dug in.  They were delicious!  Two of my boys liked this method better than toasting them over a fire.

I loved that we could even see where the crackers had been and just how quickly the sunlight faded our black paper.  

This was such a fun and yummy experiment on solar power!  

It really had been so simple to set up too that I had to question why it took us so long to try it.  

Have you ever made a solar oven?

Others in this series:

1. Bernoulli's Principle
2. Ecotarium Trip 
3. Air Molecule Experiment
4. Kitchen Science
5. Corn Maze Field Trip 
6. Birds of Florida 
7. Making Static Music
8. Un-Make It Monday
9. Wind Tunnel Experiment
10. Biomes Field Trip
11. Disappearing Coin Trip
12. Snuffing out a Candle With Baking Soda
13. Making Plastic from Milk
14. Friction Experiment 
15. & 16. Snow Experiments
17. Making an Iceberg
18. Floating Eggs
19. Pond Water Under a Microscope 
20. Planting Eco Plant Pals
21. & 22. Cotton Candy Experiments
23. Springfield Science Museum Trip
24. Signs of Spring
25. Color Changing Slime
26. Growing Our Own Tickle Plants
27. Learning About Soil Sampling
28. Making Bouncy Balls
29. Exploring the Shoreline
30. Color Changing Flowers
31. Roger Williams Zoo Trip
32. Edible Silly Putty 
33. Raising Tadpoles
34. More Microscope Fun 
35.  Homemade Ice Cream
36. How Plants Breathe Experiment 
37. Save The Bay Exploration Center Trip
38. Making Fresh Peach Preserves 

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