The students made solar cookers from recycled materials at their school to learn about sustainable energy sources. They collected information on solar cookers, constructed panel and parabolic reflector models, and tested them to reach temperatures of 35C and 70C. The students also compared their designs to those of partners in other countries and concluded the project highlighted the environmental and economic benefits of renewable resources.

1. Shpogy Secondary School
Research work in English
Authors: Laura Lāčauniece,
Jānis Stupelis
The Adviser of the Research Work:
Eva Vovka
Shpogy, 2013

2. The aim:
• To make a solar cooker from recycled
materials at school.
The tasks:
• To collaborate with the Comenius partners and share the
experience on the issue mentioned in the aim of the research
work.
• To collect theoretical information about a solar cooker;
• To make the solar cooker;
• To test it;
• To compare our solar cooker with the cookers of our
Comenius partners;
• To summarize the results of the research work and present
the results.
Methods: work with literary resources,
observation, research, analyses, comparison

3. Theoretical Part
The sun is one of the humanity's most important tool for
survival. It gives off unlimited amounts of light and heat.
Natural and simple technologies like solar cookers can
reduce or even replace fossil fuels, they do not produce
waste. Moreover, materials to build it can mostly be found
from recycled sources which makes it even more
sustainable.
A solar cooker is a device which uses the energy of
direct sunlight to heat, cook or pasteurize food or drink.

4. Panel cookers.
• This cooker works by means of a parabolic reflector, which
concentrates the rays of the sun on the pan and heats it. It is
possible to reach high temperatures and, consequently, besides
cooking, it is also possible to bake and fry.
• The only task for the cook is to rotate the cooker about every 20
min in order to orientate it towards the solar rays.
It is because of the earth’s rotation.
• These are in use in refugee camps around the world.

5. Box cookers
• It was first built by Horace de Saussure in 1767; Later
Augustin Mouchout developed the idea of solar cooking.
• 90–150 °C temperature can be reached. For best results
clear sunny days are necessary.
• It has a glass or Plexiglas cover, this cover is like a greenhouse
window- it lets the sunlight in but does not let infrared radiation
out. This type cookers also have a reflector which increases the
amount of energy the cooker receives. This device exploits solar
energy to cook food or just heat it.

6. Parabolic cooker
The first parabolic solar cooker was developed in the 1950s
by M L Ghai at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in
Delhi, India.
These ovens are usually made having a concave disks that
focus the light onto the bottom of a pot. They cook food
about as fast as on a conventional stove. Since the
concentrated sunlight shines directly on the bottom of a
pot, the pot heats up and cooks very quickly.
Widely used in China.

7. Practical part
• Panel cooker:
cooker
• To make a solar cooker we need a shiny surface to reflect and
concentrate the Sun’s energy. We took an aluminum bowl.
• We had few sunny days in winter. We could not make a real
solar cooker by using solar power as an alternative we took a
lamp

8. Experiment
In 20 min the cooker
reached 35 °C
temperature and
chocolate started
to melt.
In 40 min the cooker
reached 70 °C
temperature and
candle started to
melt.

9. Practical part
Parabolic reflector cooker:

10. QUESTIONAIRE

11. Solar cookers made by our partners

12. Conclusion
The research work is based on Comenius activity- sustainable
or renewable energy resources. Science teacher Dr Rajinder
from Germany gave a lecture how to make a solar cooker and
ten countries made the cookers. He wanted to tell us that
renewable energy is important and beneficial:
•Environmental benefits;
•Energy for next generations;
•Workplaces and the economy;
•Energy security.
Unfortunately the survey carried out proves that in Latvia we
have poor awareness of sustainable energy resources. It is
strongly recommended to assess the priorities and to think
about the future.

13. COMENIUS TEAM.
The part of the team 