Pizza Box Oven

About two weeks ago my daughter and I set out to build a pizza box oven.  Our masterpiece is shown below.

 The point of this pizza box oven is to trap solar energy to increase the temperature of the air inside the box.  Similar to a regular oven, if the air temperature is high enough, food inside will cook.  We've lined the inside of the box with foil to both reflect solar energy into the box and created a good insulator to trap the energy.  The clear saran wrap material acts to create an air tight seal that prevents warmed air from escaping.  The bottom of the box is lined with black construction paper to absorb the solar energy.  Unfortunately we have no results to show at this point.  We had plenty of days this summer where this experiment would have worked wonderfully.  Several days topped 100 degrees F in our area.  However, it took me several weeks to get around to buying a pizza and then remembering to save the box.  I tossed the first pizza box before remembering it was needed for a science experiment.

Since building this box a cold front has passed through and temperatures have remained below normal.  We're waiting for the next hot, sunny day to do this experiment.  It looks like we'll get that this weekend.  Temps are supposed to reach the high 80s and the sky should remain cloud free.  Our plan is to cook a few smores inside the box.  If that goes well, we'll see what else we can cook.

Wish us luck!  I'll post pictures next week if the weather conditions remain appropriate for this experiment.