Week 4: Super Sun!

After back-to-back Tuesdays with gray skies, we finally had sunshine. And, sunshine means it's time to talk about solar power and other alternative energy sources. Luckily, it also means it's time for solar s'mores!! (I might even be more excited than the kids about these!)

We started our classtime by putting the finishing touches on a solar oven (made out of a pizza box) and assembling s'mores. We discussed how the solar oven works -- by reflecting the sun's rays off the foil panel into the oven, where the black interior absorbs the heat.


Our solar oven cooking the s'mores!

We found a sunny spot for our oven, and angled the reflector to capture the sun's rays. We also made some hypotheses about what would happen to our s'mores. Noah made a hypothesis that the s'mores would be yummy!

While we waited for our food experiment to complete, we talked about fossil fuels versus alternative energy and played "Energy Bingo." In this game, the kids got to mingle and find classmates who could answer the questions on their Bingo card, such as "Name a fossil fuel," and "Name a way you can save energy." Everyone did a great job working together!

Owen and Anika help each other with "Energy Bingo!"

Noah and Audrey playing "Energy Bingo!"

Finally, we checked on our solar oven, observed which of our hypotheses were correct and ate our delicious experiment!

Next week we will be talking trash! If you forgot to bring in an old, adult-sized
t-shirt, be sure to have it next week for our project about reducing waste.
Can you believe that our fall Extended Day session is already half over? I hope your kids are enjoying our environmental explorations so far!