by Val John Jennings

Created on: September 11, 2009

Camping out is a great place to use a solar oven. Anything from a mailbox painted black to a cardboard box lined with aluminum foil and sprayed with black paint can be used to warm and even cook food. A 2 quart bottle can be painted black. A strip of tape is taped down one side of the bottle and removed after spraying. This allows the user to look into the bottle and observe the cooking.

The expression "it's hot enough to fry an egg" is an accurate one. A rock, glass, or metal sheet left in the sun can become hot enough to burn when touched. Some solar cookers use reflection to pinpoint the sun to a focal point. A small metal parabolic mirror can be used to ignite a fire for conventional cooking. A magnifying glass does the same thing.

Solar panels can be large or small. A very small one can power a pocket calculator, recharge a cell phone, or run a radio. Solar lamps can light a walkway in a primitive area where there is no electricity. This is very effective on paths in the woods, whether to set the mood for the evening campfire, or to add to the mystic of a Halloween ghost tale. Florescent eyes cut from reflective paper will respond to the light of a flashlight and also can glow in the dark from the earlier sunshine.

Small racecars can be raced from a solar cell. Competitions can be set up and cars judged on speed, creativity, theme, etc.

http://www.hightechscience.org/solar_express.htm is a website that describes a model railroad that is powered by solar panels and is on display at the South Florida Science Museum in West Palm Beach. Airplanes in flight, such as model airplanes, get lift from rising heat that is generated from the earth being warmed by the sun.

A working model of the solar system could be powered by solar cells. As solar cells power calculators, the time may come when cell phones that function as computers could be solar powered and a video or power point presentation could be viewed on the handheld or flat screen monitor.

Kids could use their imagination and write about solar inventions and paint pictures or make 3 dimensional reliefs. Any craft having to do with plants can illustrate the process of photosynthesis which is powered by the sun. Have fun.

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