Wow, it’s been such a long time since I’ve done a children’s program! I’ve been working the past year in a management position – so I’ve PLANNED programs, but haven’t delivered any.  In my current position, I’m back to doing children and teen programming. (YAY!)  Here’s a program that I piggy-backed off of one of my staff who did this last year. Solar oven s’mores!

Age: 9 to 12 years of age first group; 5 to 12 years of age* for the second group

• *I would definitely suggest doing this program with the older kids from 8 to 12 years of age. The second group of kids – I had a few 5 or 6 year olds and they needed a lot of hands on. If you’re doing it with some younger kids, make sure you have 1 or 2 helpers in the room with you.

Supplies:

• Pizza boxes (If you’re in Canada, go to Wholesale Club 50 pizza boxes for $20!) otherwise, ask your local pizza place for some donated boxes
• Tin Foil
• Black construction paper
• Plastic Wrap
• Wooden dowel
• Markers or paint
• Glue
• S’mores kit 

This program cost me around $30.00 – including the S’mores Kit. It equals out to about $1.50 to $1.60 per child.

Lesson:

Always begin the program off with a lesson. Ask the kids some questions like:

• What are some types of energy? (Heat, light, electricity, mechanical (moving), gravity, solar, chemical)
• What type of energy does the sun give us? (Light)
• Why do we need light? (to see; to heat things)
• What are some ways that we cook food? (stove, oven, microwave)

I gave them a piece of paper and asked them to draw a pizza box and asked them to label where the tin foil would go, where the black construction paper would go and where the plastic wrap would go.

We then discussed how the oven works. What does the tin foil do? (reflects the sun)  What does the black paper do? (absorbs the light)  What does the plastic wrap for? (insulation so the heat doesn’t come out).

Then we began making the solar oven. For the instructions, please visit Steve Spangler Science

I would suggest that you cut out the tops BEFORE you hand them out to the kids.