Solar Oven

                Today I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics and 

Monday Made It.

www.4thgradefrolics.blogspot.com 

      The warm weather and the sun shine has returned to Michigan.  So I decided to make a solar oven to make recycled crayons. 
     
              Solar Oven  SCIENCE EXPERIMENT!!!   

        All we would need was a shoe box, tin foil, and a large ziplock bag.  An addition of a  thermometer would make this an educational project.     I cut a large window in the top of a shoe box.  The next step was to glue tin foil to the entire inside of the box and lid.   I cut a zip lock bag slightly larger than the window and glued the plastic to the inside of the lid to cover the hole. 
     We were all set to start melting old broken crayons.By the end of the year you always have plenty of broken crayons!
    

           You notice the little sign on top of the Solar Oven.  It was placed outside on the playground near the school building.  But everyone knows how inquisitive students are. 

      I decided to use recycled individual creamer cups to hold the crayon pieces.

This worked fairly well.

   

We tried using an ice cube tray. Not too bad.

This is a popsicle mold I found at the Dollar Store.  The kids liked this one.  

Candy mold made cute bunny crayons. 

        We were feeling pretty good about our solar oven and new crayons.  
But ...... science experiments don't always work out they way you plan.  I placed the solar oven on a trash can in the school parking lot so no one would step on it during dismissal at 3:00.  While standing right next to the solar oven, a gust of wind came and blew the oven over.  The oven was on its side on the ground.

130 degrees, liquid crayons, and a little wind.

What do you think of the art work?

                      Have you had a science experiment that didn't turn out as expected?

Please leave me a comment.  I enjoy reading ideas and comments from you.


 Beti