Solar Ovens and Smores!

After three rainy Tuesdays we had a sunny day to cook in our pizza box solar ovens. The temperature outside was cool but the Smores turned out great!


First we had to make them. We used graham crackers, Hershey's Chocolate, and marshmallows in the middle. We wrapped them in aluminum foil and put them in our ovens.






We measured the temperature about every 30 minutes and logged the information in our journals.

I wondered about the success. Many of the ovens got up to 140 degrees F! The outside temperature was about 70 degrees F.







While we were waiting for the Smores to cook, we took a virtual tour of the ExCel energy power plant and learned how they make coal into electricity. This virtual tour will be like our field trip next week to Fayette Power Plant in La Grange.



We also continued to work on our projects using Museum Box. This is a cool Web 2.0 project where the students create their own "museum shadow box" display online. They are researching and making a display about an invention and how it changed our world. We can't wait to see the finished projects.

Of course the best thing about our Smores was eating them!

Unsolved Mystery 5th Grade Parent Day!

What a beautiful day we had for the parents to come by CSI to see the student's projects and how hard they had been working on creating their iMovies. Students could choose their own Unsolved Mystery like: Big Foot, Crop Circles, The disappearance of Amelia Earhart, even Black Holes to research and make their own iMovie. Thanks so much to Mrs. Schoppe who is always there to guide and help them as they create!
The lab was full of many science mysteries: One table had Magic Sand which showed the difference between "hydrophobic" and "hydrophilic" substances. Do you remember the difference?


Students got to make their own slime to take home. Green slime and the cross linking solution shows how polymers link together to form globby substances!





Pearl Swirl makes a Rheoscope which allows us to see currents within water. Pretty cool!



The giant Crystal Bubble made with Carbon Dioxide gas from dry ice melting is always a favorite!








Square bubbles were a challenge! Bouncing a bubble and playing catch with a bubble was more fun than challenging.





Before the parents came and before all the lab activities started, the students had a little time to work on their iMovies. While some were working, we used the Netbooks to make Wordles about our unsolved mysteries. We had some great Wordles. I hope to post them later.

4th Grade Rainy Day Solar Ovens!

One of the favorite days at 4th Grade CSI is to cook in the solar ovens. We are anxiously awaiting our next sunny day so we can cook Smores in our solar oven Pizza boxes. Today was a rainy day so we spent our time making the ovens. We will cook in them as soon as it is sunny!

Emma started our day with All About Me and shared her love of reading! She has won many awards for being the top reader in her class for several years. Go Emma! Keep up the great love of reading!



STEPS TO MAKE A SOLAR OVEN:
Materials:
Pizza Box (recycled is best)
Scissors
Plastic Wrap
Aluminum Foil
Masking Tape
Black Construction Paper
Ruler

1. First, trace a line about one inch around the top of the pizza box on three sides. Don't cut the side by the flap that closes.






















2. Second, glue aluminum foil to the bottom of the flap. Trim the aluminum foil so that it fits evenly to the flap.


















3. Third, tightly tape plastic wrap to the underside of the open "window". Tape near the cut out so the plastic wrap is stretched tight over the opening.















4. Glue aluminum foil to the inside bottom of the pizza box.






















5. Glue Black construction paper on top of the aluminum foil.






6. Now your oven is ready for cooking.