This week in Year 3 the children have been busy creating their very own solar ovens, ready for investigating next week. To help them to do so, first they explored the “ingredients” to the perfect investigation and discussed key elements such as the following: a scientific question, a plausible prediction, taking measurements, recording results, analysing data, as well as a  conclusion that details whether your hypothesis is/was correct/incorrect etc.

They were then introduced to the idea of creating their very own solar ovens and made a range of equipment choices based on both their new knowledge in relation to renewable energy as well as their prior knowledge in relation to materials and their properties i.e. black paper – “black absorbs heat”; cling film – “it will help to trap the heat”; tin foil – “the sun will reflect off the foil and help to heat my oven”.

Next they began to think of questions that they would like to investigate, making sure to provide plausible reasons as to why whilst doing so i.e. investigating the best time of day to use a solar oven – “I think my solar oven will be most effective at midday as that is when it is warmest”; investigating indoors Vs outdoors – “I think my oven will work best indoors as there will be no wind and it will still get sunlight through the window if I place it on a windowsill” etc.

Once they had finalised their choice of enquiry they then set to work on constructing their ovens.

Take a look for yourself…