By Katie Vasquez
These budding scientists at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy in Forest Hills are conducting an experiment, testing out the powerful rays of the sun.
“Instead of using stuff that could destroy the earth like fossil fuels to cook, we’re using stuff that could help the earth like solar energy,” said Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy student, Alex Deic.
As part of their lesson on renewable energy, the 22 students constructed solar powered ovens out of objects that anyone could find at home.
“We’re using the pizza boxes that were just used for the fifth grade lunch. so reusing, recycling,” said Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy teacher, Ryan Duffy. “They use aluminum foil and black construction paper and things like that, things that will help absorb the heat, make it a little bit hotter. We have saran wrap also to help trap it and then the black paper should help absorb the heat a little bit faster.”
The 6th graders then head outside to put their project to the test, cooking s’mores.
And in a short amount of time, roughly 26 minutes, students were able to taste the results, scoring high marks.
But the ultimate lesson was ensuring they do their part to protect God’s creation.
“We can do extra stuff to help the planet but I feel like every day we should make small contributions to help the planet,” said Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy student, Abigail Langley.
“In a couple of years, we’ll look back to all that. all the bad things that happened to this environment and see how many ways we could have changed us,” said Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy student, Sophia Trujillo.