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Solar Cooker

Harness the power of the sun to make a chocolaty treat!

Learning Benefits

Hover over each Learning Benefit below for a detailed explanation.

What you need: 

  • scissors 
  • ruler 
  • aluminum foil 
  • two 12-ounce cups 
  • tape 
  • black construction paper 
  • 2 Hershey's kisses 
  • toothpick 
  • graham cracker

What to do: 

  • Make two kinds of ovens:
  1. Cut a 7" x 7" square of aluminum foil.
  2. Place it shiny-side up and fold the foil diagonally to make a triangle. Unfold the foil and repeat with the remaining two corners.
  3. Gently stuff the foil, shiny-side up, 2 1/2" into the cup, so you have a cone-shaped bowl.
  4. Tape the bowl to the cup.
  5. Repeat steps 1-4 with black construction paper.
  • Make hot fudge!
  1. The parent should hold both ovens so that they face the sun. Make sure there are no shadows!
  2. Using foil, cut a tiny "plate" for your chocolate. Place the plate on the bottom of the foil oven.
  3. Using black construction paper instead of foil, repeat step 2 for the paper oven.
  4. Set a piece of chocolate on each plate.
  5. Ask your child which piece of chocolate she thinks will melt first. Then have her observe which piece gets shiny first.
  6. After two minutes, poke a toothpick into each piece. Which is softer? Which melts first?
  7. Spread the gooey chocolate on a graham cracker for a tasty treat!

Learning benefits:

  • develops observation and prediction skills

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