Solar Oven Science Fair Project

Making solar ovens for science fairs can help in emphasizing the importance of using renewable energy. These ovens work on solar power and are therefore, cheap source of energy. There are many ideas that can be implemented in different types of solar oven projects. One can make better use of energy provided by the Sun. Let us understand how to make a solar powered oven for science fairs. The main idea behind this project is to learn how to use solar energy and how these ovens work.

How to Make a Solar Oven
Here is the process of making a simple solar oven. The materials required to make such a box are as follows: 2 cardboard boxes (medium and large sized), cardboard sheet, pencil, tape, knife, glue, aluminum foil, newspaper, ruler and black paint. The following procedure would help in making a nice solar oven for science fairs.

• The large cardboard box should be placed on a clean surface and its flaps closed with tapes. The second, medium-sized box should be placed on the larger one and its outline traced with a pencil.
• Cutting the large box, in accordance with the marked outline, creates a rectangular hole at the top.
• Flaps of the medium-sized box should be glued to its sides. The box should be inserted into the larger one in order to check whether it fits snugly; it should be removed thereafter.
• An aluminum foil need to be glued to the inside of both the medium-sized and large box. Once the glue dries, the medium-sized box should be placed inside the larger one. Top edges of both the boxes need to be adjusted to a same level.
• A cardboard sheet need to be glued to the base of the inner box. It should however, be covered with an aluminum foil that is painted black.
• Larger box fitted with the medium one should be turned upside down and placed on a cardboard sheet. The outline of top portion of this box need to be traced with a pencil. Outside the perimeter of this outline, one should draw edges on all the four sides having a width of 3-4 inches.
• The edges need to be folded and sealed with a tape. It acts as a lid for the solar oven.
• The lid should be glued to an aluminum foil on the underside.

Solar Oven Science Project Ideas
Apart from the basic model of solar oven explained above, the following ideas can be used in making simple projects. These models make good use of solar energy.

Windshield Shade Solar Funnel Cooker
A solar cooker can be made from a car windshield shade. To make a solar oven with the windshield, one has to fold it in the funnel shape. Velcro tabs can be stitched along the edges so as to attach them together. It helps in keeping the funnel shape intact. Once the proper shape is attained, the oven should be kept on a bucket. A square rack or wood block should be placed inside the solar oven; it serves as the platform to place utensils. A black colored pot should be placed on the square platform. The shiny surface and funnel shape of the oven helps in reflecting light onto the black pot.

'Parvati' Solar Cooker
This type of solar oven is made from three cardboard sections that are pasted together to form a conical shape. Let's denote the three parts/sections by the names A, B and C. Section A is the smallest and forms the base of this solar oven. It is a circular, disc-shaped structure with a radius of 4 inches. A circular cardboard piece of 3.6 inches is pasted or attached to it right in the middle. The gap/border between these two cardboard circles acts as a collar for connecting to the part B.

The section B is also formed of 2 cardboard having the radius of 12 inches and 11.3 inches respectively. Paste them together concentrically and draw a concentric circle of 4.8 inches on it and cut the cardboard along this circle, so that, the section B has a hole at its center. This part B, unlike the section A is not completely circular when used; we will have to cut out 125° piece out of it. It is actually a 255° section that remains of the circular B section i.e. a 'C' shaped arc that has inner radius of 4.8 inches that we are going to use. Join the free ends of the 'C' shaped cardboard together to form middle section of the oven.

The last (upper) section is named as C. Cut a cardboard circle of radius of 24 inches. Draw a circle of radius of 16 inches on it. Cut the cardboard half. Now cut the cardboard along the drawn circle. It is a semi-circular arc having an outer radius of 24 inches. The inner radius of this semi-circular arc should be 16 inches. I hope you got it. Now paste ends of this arc together to form the third section of the solar oven.

Now, paste the parts named A, B and C together. To connect the sections together, V-shaped cuts need to created along the borders/collars. These V-cuts need to be interlocked to connect the sections properly. Paste aluminum foil on the inner surface of this structure so that it will reflect the sunlight. You solar oven is ready, while demonstrating place a tripod in it and a pot containing whatever you want cook on the tripod.

The solar oven science fair projects need to be something innovative and useful. Children can make use of the ideas presented above, for their school science fairs. It would help in making a solar oven easily.