Guy K.

Geosciences, period2

How does a solar box cooker work?

Energy is generally defined as the ability to do work, also the power to change things. Everything in

the world all contains some sort of energy, and there are a lot of different forms of energy, such as chemical

energy, electrical energy, thermal energy, radiant energy, mechanical energy, and nuclear energy. The most

common source of energy that we use is from natural resources, we can convert the energy into another

form that is capable with our daily use. For example, we collect the energy from natural resources then

convert into electricity to power all electric system. The Law of Conservation of Energy is the form of energy

which can be transformed into another form of energy. It is very beneficial to us because we use it to

transform any form of energy to electricity for our daily use as well.

Energy flow firstly starts from the sun which is the most primary energy source on the earth. The

solar energy is later captured by plants to be used in respiration by converting the heat in to energy. Plants

capture solar energy and convert in to food, such as glucose. They also produce oxygen by reproducing

carbon dioxide and water. The energy flow can be transferred to other organisms, such as herbivores and

decomposers. Normally, herbivores will take the energy by eating the plant and decomposers will feed the

plant after they are dead. Moreover, the plants will take the solar energy to convert into nutrition. From the

process, the plants will absorb carbon dioxide for respiration, then convert it into oxygen and release it to the

atmosphere. Alternative energy is a form of energy which can be produced without burning fossil fuels and

producing carbon dioxide. The good thing from this form of energy is that it won’t increase the temperature

in the atmosphere. It also helps with the Global Warming. Therefore, alternative energy won’t make any

harm to our environment. However, there is also a problem with another form of alternative energy which is

nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is the most powerful source that we can use to produce electricity, but if

anything goes wrong with it, it would cause a lot of problems to all human, living things and environment

nearby.

Our experiment is to build a solar box cooker and see how it can work with a renewable energy

resource which is the sun. We decided to do this activity because it is very interesting that we build a very

simple box which is able to cook food without using any electricity or gas to create heat at all. The solar box

cooker only uses the energy from the sunlight which is the heat. Sunlight can produce some amount of heat,
but it is not actually enough to cook by just letting it heat up food directly. So, the solar box is designed to

help us collect the heat from sunlight until it reaches a level which can provide enough heat to make food

cook. Basically, the solar box cooker works by the foil covered top which is the place where it collects the

heat, also lots of paper inside the box will help to increase the temperature inside as well. Therefore, the

sunlight is the most important factor which indicates to the performance of the solar box cooker, it can

control how well the box can work.

Research Question: How does a solar box cooker work?

Independent variable: The sun, weather

Dependent variable: Temperature, sausage

Controlled variable: box size, location where we place a box

Materials

• 2 large corrugated cardboard boxes

• A flat piece of card board

• A light piece of glass 50*60cm

• A thin metal tray 42*52cm

• Dark cooking pots

• Aluminum foil

• Water-based glue

• Lots of newspaper

• String 1 foot

• A stick 1 foot

Procedures:

1. Cut the plastic board

2. Put the plastic board pieces together to make a bow

3. Put a tape around the box to make it strong

 4. Spray the inside of the box with black spray

5. Scramble a lot of newspapers

6. Put the newspapers pieces inside the box

7. Then build another box with a smaller size as the same way as the first one

8. Put aluminum around the smaller box

9. Place the smaller box into the bigger box, in the middle of newspapers pieces

10. Start the experiment by putting a sausage in side the foiled bow

11. Bring the box outside and place it in the sun

12. Leave the box under the sun for 30 minutes

13. Then check the temperature inside the box with a thermometer, and observe the sausage

Data Collection

Trial 1: 30 minutes at 10am

-The sausage seemed to be warmer at 37degree Celsius; the skin was darker only on the top side. But

another side was a bit colder because it was not heated by the sunlight.

Trial 2: 30 minutes at 12:15pm

-Very similar to the first trial, but the temperature was warmer at 39 degree Celsius

Trial 3: 30 minutes at 8am

-The sausage had wrinkle and brownish skin. The temperature was not increased a lot due to the weather.

So the sausage was not really warmer.

Solar Box Cooker Temperature(Degree Celsius)

Trial1 37
Trial2 39
Trial3 30

Conclusion and Evaluation

The lab is to use the energy from the sunlight to produce heat by using a solar box cooker as a tool

to help to capture and collect the heat energy. A sausage was placed inside a foil covered box which has the

ability to heat up the sausage. The aluminum foil around the box can help to increase the temperature inside

the box by capturing and collecting the heat from the sunlight, and then it ventilates the heat. The heat was

transferred to the sausage through the cycle of the air inside. The top of the box was open to let the sunlight
get through, so the sausage was able to directly receive the heat. After we left the box under the sun for 30

minutes, we observed the changes such as the temperature and the physical look of the sausages. From

the three trials, the results that we got were all slightly different. There were a lot of factors which were the

cause that made the results came out all different, but the most important factor was the sun. The heat from

the sunlight was very important in this lab because it was the only source of energy that we could use, and it

was not controllable. By the time we doing the lab in class, it was not always the same time, we did it in the

morning, noon and afternoon. The sun did not appear clearly in the sky every time, especially in the

morning, we seemed to have no access to the sun due to the weather. The problem that we found in this lab

was that the solar box cooker could not really produce the temperature as high as we expected. We could

see that the sausage was not really well cooked from every trial. It was only heated up at one side that was

exposed to the sun.

The thing that we could improve in this lab is that we should change the design of the box to be

more open, so the sausage would be able to get the heat from the sun effectively. Also, we should put some

thing to generate the heat to make it warmer, such as a magnifier.

Overall, this lab can tell how the energy from the sunlight can be used as a renewable energy. By

building a solar box cooker, it can help to collect the energy from sunlight and produce some amount of heat

to cook a sausage. We found that the sausage was heated up and burnt a little bit. From the result, the

average temperature was around 38 degree Celsius, the sausage’s skin got burnt and turned darker but the

whole sausage was not totally cooked. We can see that the sun is the most important factor that makes a

sausage cook. As much as we have access to the sun, we would be able to use the energy from it as much

as possible.