Team Hot Stuff Mrs. Shaw

Final Project Requirements  DUE THURSDAY!! 25%  MAKE SOMETHING HIGH SCHOOL WORTHY using solar energy 25% Explain in a short paragraph  the design of your structure and identify how each part of the design works (conductors and insulators) AND turn in a scale drawing of your solar project. 25%  Design an experiment to test something with your structure.  Identify the variables (dependent - measuring and independent - changing) You must set it up using the scientific method and include a hypothesis, variables, procedures and a conclusion.  YOU CAN DO THIS!!!  25% conduct your experiment and video tape it and send to me via email or upload to youtube  

What do We Test? Possible problem questions to test: Does the angle of the sunlight affect the rate of chocolate melting? Does the color of the background paper affect the temperature of the solar oven? Does the amount of plastic insulation covering the structure affect the rate that the hot dog cooks? 

Why my structure is the BEST! We decided to build a solar hot dog cooker after reviewing the solar project options given to us. We like that it looked fairly simple and could still cook a hot dog! Our design incorporates the use of a shoe box and a half moon insert where the tin foil is placed. The tin foil half moon structure serves as a conductor of thermal energy by reflecting the sunlight. The wire rotisserie holds the hot dog in this area to be sure the most thermal energy gets to the hot dog. The wire also acts as a conductor of energy. Our shoebox was covered in plastic wrap to hold in the heat collected by the tin foil so it acts as an insulator in this project.

Our design

Our Experiment Problem: Does the amount of insulation affect the rate of temperature change in our solar hot dog cooker? Hypothesis: If more insulation is placed on a solar hot dog cooker, then the temperature will rise faster because adding insulation will cause more heat to be trapped inside the cooker. Materials: Solar Hot Dog Cooker Oven, extra plastic wrap, thermometer, 2 hot dogs.

Our Experiment continued Procedure: 1. Get supplies out and ready to test. 2. Put hot dog on wire rotisserie insert. 3. Take initial reading of temperature inside oven using thermometer and leave thermometer inside oven. 4. Cover with 1 layer of plastic wrap as originally designed 5. Place solar oven in direct sunlight and observe temperature change at 5 minute intervals until 20 minutes has passed. 6. Document data in chart.

Our Experiment continued 7. After test 1 data is collected remove solar oven from area. Remove plastic wrap, hot dog and thermometer. 8. Replace hot dog on wire rotisserie and put thermometer back in oven after it has reached room temperature again. Cover solar oven with 3 layers of plastic wrap. Repeat steps 5 and 6.

Our Pictures Test A Test B

Our Data Test 1 – Temperature with 1 layer of Insulation – Degrees Celsius Test 2 – Temperature 3 layers of Insulation – Degrees Celsius Start 5 At 5 minutes 15 25 At 10 minutes 35 At 15 minutes 45 50 At 20 minutes

Graph http://nces.ed.gov/NCESKIDS/createagraph/default.aspx

Conclusion Here you will explain what happened and how your design worked. You should state whether your hypothesis is supported or not. You will also explain what you would do different next time either with your design or your test. List any possible sources of error that could have affected your results. Then explain how your experiment can benefit others . . . Using more renewable resources can help our environment by ………………. 