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Students will understand the importance of clean energy and its impact on the environment.

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Students will learn different types of clean energy sources, such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric.

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Students will be able to discuss the benefits and challenges associated with clean energy.

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Why is it important to use clean energy instead of fossil fuels?

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Introduction to Clean Energy: Explain the concept of clean energy and its various sources. Use a presentation or video for visual aid.

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Introduction to Renewable Energy Sources (Energy 3.2)

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Group Activity: In small groups, students will research a specific type of clean energy and create a poster to present their findings. Use Padlet to organize and share their posters.

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Worksheet: Students will complete a worksheet that includes questions on clean energy sources and their benefits. This will reinforce what they have learned.

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Browse renewable energy worksheets resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.

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Extension Activity: Students who excel in the worksheet can work on an additional project, such as building a simple solar oven. Provide instructions and materials.

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Skip to Main Content

Cardboard pizza box

Box knife or scissors

Aluminum foil

Clear tape

Plastic wrap

Black construction paper

Newspapers

Ruler or wooden spoon

Thermometer

An adult to help with cutting

7 Steps to Build Your DIY Solar Oven

The heat from the Sun is trapped inside of your pizza box solar oven, and it starts getting very hot. Ovens like this one are called collector boxes because they collect the sunlight inside. As it sits out in the Sun, your oven eventually heats up enough to melt cheese, or cook food!

How does it happen? Rays of light are coming to the Earth at an angle. The foil reflects the ray and bounces it directly into the opening of the box. Once it has gone through the plastic wrap, it heats up the air that is trapped inside. The black paper absorbs the heat at the bottom of the oven, and the newspaper makes sure that the heat stays where it is, instead of escaping out the sides of the oven.

Your pizza box solar oven can reach about 200° F on a sunny day and will take longer to heat things than a conventional oven. Although this method will take longer, it is very easy to use, and it is safe to leave alone while the energy from the Sun cooks your food.

Pizza Box Solar Oven Cooking Tips:

We made a cheese roll-up by melting cheese on a corn tortilla. It took about 45 minutes for our cheese to melt and the tortilla to become soft. The internal temperature of our pizza box solar oven was 125° F.

If you do not want to wait long to have a solar-cooked dish, try heating up something that has already been cooked, like leftovers, or a can of soup. Putting solid food in a glass dish and liquids in a heavy plastic zip lock bag works well. You can also pre-heat your oven by setting it in direct Sun for up to an hour.

Other recipes you may want to try are making baked potatoes, rice with vegetables, chocolate fondue, s'mores, and roasted apples with cinnamon and sugar.

Even on partly cloudy days, there may be enough heat and light from the Sun to slow cook a special dish. Here are a few tips for having success with your solar oven:

Stir liquids (if you're cooking something like fondue, rice, or soup) every 10 minutes. You can rotate solid food every 10-15 minutes as well, so it cooks evenly.

Reposition your solar oven when needed, so that it faces direct sunlight. You should be checking periodically on your oven, to make sure it is in the Sun.

Make sure that the foil-covered flap is reflecting light into the pizza box, through the plastic-covered window.

To experiment further with solar cooking, make your own solar purifier with this science project!

For more ready-to-go science projects, see Solar & Alternative Energy Kits.

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How to Build A Solar Oven | Science Project from Home Science Tools

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Capture solar energy (heat) from the sun in this collector pizza box oven and use it to cook food! Complete science project for ages 9 and up!

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Observe group discussions and check their posters on Padlet to gauge understanding of clean energy concepts.

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Quiz: Conduct a quiz at the end of the lesson to assess students' understanding of clean energy and its importance.

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Hold a group discussion to summarize the key points of the lesson. Encourage students to share what they found most interesting.

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Ask each student to write down one new thing they learned about clean energy and one question they still have.

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Assign students to read an article on recent advancements in clean energy and write a short summary.

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Rapid progress of key clean energy technologies shows the new energy economy is emerging faster than many think - News - IEA

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Rapid progress of key clean energy technologies shows the new energy economy is emerging faster than many think - News from the International Energy Agency

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Direct students to play an online game that simulates managing clean energy resources.

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About This Game

Take on the role of an engineer and work towards a green future. Your goal is to build self-sufficient power grids for towns and cities and cut out dependence on fossil fuels. Evaluate the unique needs of the local area and design solutions making best use of the elements around you.

ITERATIVELY BUILD & TEST POWER GRID DESIGNS

Use a range of energy technologies like solar, wind and hydroelectric power

Balance budget, efficiency, and different building types

Run simulations and evaluate the results to determine your next steps

Compete with the community via in-game leaderboards to build the best designs

Build infrastructure which functions in different weather patterns and climate

Store energy in battery farms to avoid power cuts when the sun or wind aren't available

Use transformers to convert between hi and lo-voltage

ADAPT TO YOUR ENVIRONMENT

Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

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A relaxing game where you become a power engineer and iteratively design, test and build power grid designs. Balance budget and efficiency across a variety of biomes. Will you build resilient systems, or cobble something together with duct tape? It's your choice.