SHORELINE — A handful of Shorewood students are expending energy on a solar oven, which they expect to complete just in time for dinner — and the Renewable Energy Fair.
Under the direction of ninth-grade science teacher Alisan Giesy, six students are preparing an exhibit for the June 4 fair. The students, members of the school’s Student Action for the Environment (SAFE) club, have been spending their after-school hours constructing a solar oven. Year round, the group is involved in raising money for the Nature Conservancy.
Spenser Mestel, a sophomore who is working on the solar oven, said it is rewarding to build something that relies on solar energy to operate.
“With a little elbow grease and determination we’re able to make something that’s completely solar-powered,” Mestel said. “Our culture is centered around consuming. Being able to make responsible decisions is a luxury.”
The oven is made from cardboard, with a large square-shaped base. Long pieces of cardboard, called “ribs,” are hot-glued to the base. The ribs, once covered with an aluminized mylar coating, will direct incoming solar radiation toward a central point, which is the grill. If focused directly, the oven can heat up to 650 degrees fahrenheit.
The SAFE club did not participate in the fair last year, and the students plan to test the solar oven before the event. At the fair, Giesy said the students will demonstrate the solar oven, roasting vegetables or something simple to heat.
“They are urban children; I have discovered there are a great many that haven’t spent much time in the wilderness,” Giesy said. “The idea that they can cook something without a stove is a surprise. I think they will be quite pleased.”
Larry Owens, co-founder of the Shoreline Solar Project, said this year’s fair will feature more than twice as many exhibitors as 2004, and the event is open to all schools. Last year, the fair was limited to Meridian Park Elementary students.
Every school in the district was offered table space this year, and many students received kits in preparation of the event, detailing how to construct solar-powered objects, such as a solar oven.
Shoreline Solar Project members were able to purchase hundreds of kits after city council members approved $2,500 in funding. About 100 kits were already dispersed to students, and another 250 will be given away on a first-come, first-serve basis at the fair.
“We purchased solar activity kits with a solar panel, motor and other pieces to assemble into whatever they want to create,” Owens said. “The goal was that it has to move.”
Meridian Park Elementary is an ideal location for the fair, Owens said, because it became the first public building in Shoreline to utilize solar electricity when solar modules were activated on Oct. 2, 2004.
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