Trial and Error

The other day, we went out to dinner and returned with our left overs in small pizza boxes. I've been wanting to try the pizza box solar oven with the kids for a while now but I either remember after the box has been tossed or the box is yucky from pizza remains.

So, I held these small boxes aside, cut them and covered them according to the directions here. I knew that this would a trial and error experience as the pizza box was tiny and it didn't quite go together like most boxes. However, I like to try things with the kids where I'm not sure what the outcome will be. I think "failures" are good for them to experience.

I didn't go with the whole pizza idea - I wanted something simpler. So, we just melted cheese onto tortilla chips. The kids had a great time going out and checking on it every 10 minutes or so. We finally took them out at about half hour as the cheese was starting to crisp rather than fully melt.

We talked about all the things that would maybe give us different results such as bigger boxes, different angle on the top piece for the run to reflect, different cheese, etc. Although it didn't produce the results we were hoping for - it was still a lot of fun. In the end though, I think it melted just like cheese would in the sun. Of course, the kids were happy with this. I think a larger surface where more sun could be reflected and more black on the bottom could show (there wasn't a lot exposed) and our results would have been a little better.

But, we kept the oven for more experimentation. It's been a fun day for us with nice weather and big ideas.