Second Grade Physical Science STEM Activity: Solar Oven S’mores
This fun activity is part of an NGSS Interactive Notebook resource! If you enjoy this activity, please head on over to the (super cool) Science Demo Guy TpT store and check it out! 🙂
You can download all of the Interactive Notebook Pages associated with Next Generation Science Standard 2-PS1-4 FREE by clicking here.
NGSS 2-PS1-4
Construct an argument with evidence that some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot.
***Note, this activity is not meant to comprehensively cover this standard but rather to introduce or compliment the instruction of the standard as a whole.
In this activity, students will be working in groups using a pizza box to build and operate a solar
oven. They will also get the opportunity to eat a s’more after using the solar oven. Students will
be amazed to see the power of the sun being used to cook their food. Note that the solar oven won’t work perfectly…the chocolate might be the only thing that really melts. Planning this for a HOT day helps immensely.
Make sure to reinforce the concept that some changes can be reversed and others can not. In this case, once melted, the chocolate will solidify again and doesn’t change permanently into a melt state (it can be reversed). If the marshmallow was roasted over a fire, it’s change would be permanent (can not be reversed).
Materials needed:
Pizza box
Scissors
Pencil / Bamboo Skewer
Scotch tape
Plastic wrap
Black construction paper
S’mores Ingredients
Instructions:
Before running this activity, you (or an adult helper) will want to draw a line about one inch from
all of the edges on the top of each pizza box. With a utility or Xacto knife, cut the lines on the
sides and front that were just drawn, but leave the back line uncut, it will be your fold line. Make
sure that your fold line is on the same side as the edge of the pizza box that hinges open.
Students Instructions:
1. Cut aluminum foil to size and tape it to the back side of the cut-out flap, with the shiny side
facing out.
2. Tape black construction paper to the inside-bottom of the pizza box.
3. Tape plastic wrap over the square hole made by the cut-out flap on the top of the pizza box.
4. Use a pencil or bamboo screwer and tape to prop open the aluminum foil lid, facing the sun.
There are a few things that you the teacher can do to insure that this project runs smoothly.
• First, for this project to work, you need a sunny and warm day.
• Make sure to consider food allergies.
Class Discussion:
Talk with your students about how the properties of materials can be changed by being heated or
cooled. Then discuss how the changed properties of some materials can be reversed and others
can not. Ask the students what changes occurred in the marshmallow and chocolate (you may want
to discuss this using the example of a marshmallow that was browned/burned over a campfire).
Discuss what changes could be reversed and what changes could not. (Chocolate can be cooled and re-formed into solid chocolate, having the same properties as what it originally had. The marsh-
mallow, once toasted/burned in a fire, can’t be reformed into the original marshmallow with the same properties.)
***Download the interactive notebook pages for this standard here.
Check it out!
We’ve created an Activities & Interactive Notebook Bundle that includes ALL of the Second Grade Next Generation Science Standards! You can check it out by clicking here!
Standards covered in this bundle:
NGSS 2-ESS1-1 Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
NGSS 2-ESS2-1 Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
NGSS 2-ESS2-2 Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
NGSS 2-ESS2-3 Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
NGSS 2-LS2-1 Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
NGSS 2-LS2-2 Life Science Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
NGSS 2-LS4-1 Life Science Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
NGSS 2-PS1-1 Structure and Properties of Matter
NGSS 2-PS1-2 Structure and Properties of Matter
NGSS 2-PS1-3 Structure and Properties of Matter
NGSS 2-PS1-4 Structure and Properties of Matter
Second Grade NGSS Reference (Click Here)
