Inquiry projects seem to be all the rage at the moment. With more states and provinces revising their curricula and moving towards reinforcing science skills, inquiry has come to the forefront a bit more. Although I agree that inquiry is a good skill to develop in science, open inquiry – where students can deep dive into any topic of their choosing – does not make for an awesome science inquiry project. I feel students need to learn a structure to inquiry and to go through some teacher-led inquiry before they can initiate their own.

Giving students sudden free reign to explore any project they want is too idealistic. Unfortunately, the reality is that many will not know what to do, where to start, and what to ask if suddenly given all that freedom. Also, with a class full of 30 students doing 30 different inquiry projects, I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to give feedback and provide materials for each one.

Qualities of an awesome science inquiry project

A more realistic goal to shoot for is guided inquiry, where teachers provide a question and students come up with their own experimental procedure and data analysis to answer the question. However, what is a good science inquiry project for science teachers hoping to do some guided inquiry? Also, what is an activity or project students can tackle easily but is still open enough for students to approach the task in a variety of unique ways? And, can we also keep the cost of these projects on the low side? This is something we’ll be discussing for the next couple of posts. For this post, we talk about one of our favourite science inquiry projects: the solar oven. I’ve done this with Grade 8 students and senior physics students. And, they all enjoy the challenge. Handouts are available at the end of the post.

Awesome Science Inquiry Project #1: The Solar Oven

In my classroom, the solar oven challenge is quite simple. Using biodegradable, reusable, and/or recyclable materials, make your own solar oven that can boil water. It’s a simple challenge, and the best part is that it’s simple for anyone to start. All students need to make the most basic solar oven is cardboard, tin foil, and tape. Thus, a lot of my students start by using pizza boxes or shoe boxes and line the insides with foil. However, some students will go the extra distance and go to the local dollar store to grab mirrors and glassware to enhance their designs. And, some may even try to hack their solar ovens from other household materials too (refer to video in resources section).

The thing to remember about this science inquiry project is that it’s not about the product. It’s about the process. In my classroom, students must produce and test at least 3 prototypes, one after another. Thus, the results of one prototype will inform the design of the next. Students test their prototypes, observe and reflect upon what went wrong (or right), and build another prototype (or enhance the previous one). Therefore, this science inquiry project is about modifying and testing variables all for a single purpose. That is, to boil some water using the sun’s energy. And, it is the students’ process and documentation of that process that will tell me if they can apply the scientific and engineering design process to a real life problem.

To be honest, boiling water using only the sun’s energy is hard. And, most students will not boil water. And, that’s okay. It’s always about the process of getting there. In the end, the building, the testing, the teamwork, and the desire to get a better result for each prototype is what the students will remember. And, that is also where the learning takes place too. In my experience, a lot of students will get their water to reach 35℃. However, some may break 45℃. And, very few will go above 60℃. But, rest assured, those oven’s that can reach over 60℃ have got some seriously science thought put into them.

Some online resources

http://www.solarcooking.org/plans. This is a website with a variety of different types of solar ovens

http://www.re-energy.ca/solar-oven. This website has a basic solar oven construction plan

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/jrje73EyKag. This video is produced by the King of Random and is titled “Burning Stuff with 2000℉ Solar Power!” This video shows how a solar oven doesn’t just have to be made of mirrors or reflecting surface.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/XFw7U7v1Hok. This video is produced by the King of Random and is titled, “How to get 2000℉ Solar Power!. Ths video shoes how simple it is to get the materials to make a solar oven.

Wrap Up

Having students complete guided science inquiry projects is a great way to teach inquiry. Having a science inquiry project that is also easy to do, flexible in how to complete the task, and on the cheap side of science projects is also a plus. That’s what makes a solar oven such an awesome science inquiry project. We’ll be covering another great science inquiry project for an upcoming post. To download our handouts for this post, please click on the link below. Also, please share this resource with colleagues! Thanks!!

Until next time, keep it REAL.

Resources

Handout(s): 29 – Solar Oven Inquiry Project

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