Kaitlyn and Angie

Event Year: 2024
Event Location: Cocoa-FL
Competition: Solar Energy Cook-Off
Division: 6-8
School: Hidden Oaks Middle
Team Name: The Pretty Pancakes
Project Name: Solar Oven
Team Size: 2

Our names are Kaitlyn S. and Angelina T. Our school is Hidden Oaks Middle and were both in 6th grade. These are a few pictures of our solar oven.

The last picture says 127 degrees farenhight this was I believe our 3rd concept.

Our team has never been in a solar cooker competition but our school has been doing this for a while according to our science teacher. We do not know if our school has won any awards for the solar cook off. One interesting fact though is that we had about 5 solar oven ideas before we had our final product! The materials we used were a picture frame glass, a small black storage bin, gorilla tape, paper towels,tinfoil, a thermometer, and zip ties. We used the black storage bin which was from our original solar oven and the idea of having tinfoil came from Kaitlyn’s dad. The non-team member that helped was Kaitlyn’s dad, he mostly helped with the glass and taught us how to use the zip ties. Our concept was basically an oven! Being able to open and close whenever you need, and the heat building up and up and not escaping.

The highest our solar oven got to was 168 degrees fahrenheit! The sun was out about midday and there were no clouds, but even when there were clouds it was at 130 degrees fahrenheit!

We are making pancakes and these are the recipes we tested

Pancake 1: Pretty Pancakes Other Options: Strawberries, Nutella, Syrup

1. ¾ cup of milk

2. 2 tablespoons white vinegar

3. 1 cup of all purpose flour

4. 2 tablespoons of white sugar

5. 1 teaspoon baking powder

6. ½ teaspoon of baking soda

7. ½ teaspoon of salt

8. 1 egg

9. 2 tablespoons of butter, melted

Pancake 2: Easy pancakes

Krusteaz mix 1/2

1 cup of water

Directions- First, combine milk and vinegar in a bowl and set aside for five minutes to make sour milk, next, combie flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda. and salt, in a large mixing bowl, wisk egg and butter into sour milk, mix flour mixture and milk mixture untill no lumps apper.Coat the surface in cooking spray. Then put in solar cooker and let it cook untill bubbles form and the edges are dry and flip it, thenenjoy!

Recipie Number 1- Three or more servings

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