You can harness the sun's power to cook your food! Go green by making a solar oven. You can recycle and eliminate the use of non-renewable energy at the same time. Just follow these instructions and you can start cooking outside in the sun.
Materials:
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- Pizza box
- Black construction paper
- Aluminum foil
- Clear plastic (thicker is better)
- Scissors, ruler, non-toxic glue, strong tape, magic marker
Here's what to do:
- Close your pizza box. Whichever side of the box closes around the other will be your top from now on. If the side that tucks inside has three flaps instead of connected sides, reinforce the flaps with construction paper and glue.
- Draw a 1-inch (2.5 centimeter) border around the top of the box.
- Cut along three sides of your border. Leave the line at the back of the box intact, so you have a flap you can open.
- Fold back your flap along the back line. Make sure the fold is straight.
- Glue aluminum foil to the inside of the flap. Don't wrap the foil around to the top of the flap because it will get very hot when cooking.
- Form an airtight seal around the window by covering the opening you cut out of the box in step 3 with a layer of clear plastic. Wrap the plastic around to the sides of the pizza box so you can tape it to the inside of the box top.
- Open your box.
- Glue aluminum foil to the bottom of the box. The entire bottom should be covered.
- Tape black construction paper over the aluminum foil layer.
- Close the pizza box.
When you're ready to cook, open the flap on top so as much sunlight as possible is reflected through the window, into the oven. Prop it open with a straw or dowel [source: SolarNow, SolarCookers].
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