Pizza box ovens teach more than just cooking

Every student in sixth grade in the state of Utah learns about solar power; it’s part of the curriculum. And nothing gets students more excited about learning how it works than learning how to cook s’mores in a used pizza box.

“It was really fun to put the oven together at home and then come and see how others did it,” Falcon Ridge sixth grader Kyle Robinson said. “Every oven is a little different.”

And that’s the point, according to sixth grade science teacher Joan McLaughlin.

“Every student has the same basic instructions, but what one student may use for insulation will be different from another student,” she said. “It’s a great way to teach the basics while letting them experiment a little on their own.”

For the past three years, sixth graders at Falcon Ridge have built the pizza box ovens, then used them to harness the sun’s energy to cook a s’more.

“You want it to get to at least 100 degrees,” sixth grader Carter Coombs said. “But the hotter it gets, the better. Some of these ovens are way over 100 degrees and they’ve only been out here for about an hour.”

Besides giving students a clear idea of how the sun’s energy works, building the ovens gives students the chance to see how following directions can change the outcome for good and bad.

“Each year, students learn how to improve on the basic design,” McLaughlin said. “Ultimately, we’d like to see some of these ovens hit 180 degrees before we’re done, depending on the design.”

Once the cooking is done, McLaughlin talks to the students about what worked and what didn’t work.

“We want to teach them the process of creating the ovens and then we talk about what worked and what didn’t work. This is a lesson they won’t soon forget.”

Students agree.

“I really liked eating my s’more but I had so much fun I can’t wait to get home and do it over and over again,” Carter said.

“Yeah, it was the coolest thing,” Kyle said.