Harnessing the Sun: Fifth Graders Turn Pizza Boxes into Solar Ovens

A sunny Tuesday provided the perfect setting for Mrs. Mayer’s fifth-grade science classes to take their learning outdoors. With pizza boxes, science tools, and plenty of curiosity, students explored how sunlight can be used to heat food.

Working in groups, students transformed pizza boxes into functional solar ovens. The project brought physical science concepts to life while giving students an opportunity to follow the scientific method from start to finish.

Before testing their ovens, students developed hypotheses about what would happen. They then observed visual changes, measured temperatures over time, and recorded their findings. After collecting their data, students analyzed the results and drew conclusions about how solar energy can produce heat.

The experiment helped students explore reflection, refraction, and absorption. They investigated how light reflects off surfaces, bends as it passes through different materials, and warms materials when absorbed.

Between temperature measurements, students continued their investigations with prisms, mirrors, and magnifying glasses. These tools offered additional opportunities to observe how light bends and bounces, turning the outdoor learning space into a hands-on science lab.

The lesson combined teamwork, careful observation, and problem-solving as students connected classroom concepts with results they could see and measure.
Mrs. Mayer and her classes extend a special thank-you to Athena’s Pizza for supporting hands-on STEM education in our community!