Brandon's Blog » Education

Testing My Solar Oven.

Brandon — Sun, 22 May 2011 16:50:57 +0000

I have recently purchased a solar oven from Amazon.com. The oven is made in the good ol’ USA by Sun Ovens. The manual recommended that I heat a pot of soap and water before cooking anything in the oven so I thought that would be a great chance to test the oven out. It was an overcast day with the sun peaking out every 10 to 15 minutes and the outside temperature was 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Soap, water and sun check!

As soon as I set the oven up the temperature jumped to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Awesome! The time was 4:00 p.m.

4:15 p.m. 230 degrees Fahrenheit.

4:30 p.m. 240 degrees Fahrenheit.

Getting very steamy in there!

I had to open the oven to clean off the condensation in order to read the gauge which dropped the temperature back down to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. 5:00 p.m.

The sun was setting so I decided to follow it by tilting the oven towards the sun using the included stand.

Great feature of this oven is the built in adjustable stand.

Had to open it up to snap the picture due the condensation. 250 degrees Fahrenheit at 5:30 p.m.

The sun was setting behind some trees by 6:00 p.m. 220 degrees Fahrenheit.

I am guessing the reason the manual says to heat up a pan of soap and water is to disinfect the oven and it did get rid of the new car smell. My findings are thus: On an 80 degree day with overcast skies the oven will hold a temp close to 250 degrees Fahrenheit if you don’t open the door very often. What I have here is a free energy slow cooker in these conditions. Which is great because meat and chicken cooked all day slow is really tender and juicy! I also suspect the statements about the moist bake goods that come out of these ovens are true. The manual does recommend that you cover what you are cooking unless it is bake goods. It states you cook those just like you would in a conventional oven. The oven heated up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit very quickly so making noodle dishes or hot tea would be a snap in this little gem.

I am not sure if I could have built one myself for the price ($289). The time and the materials may have been more expensive with the cost of the metal used. I think I am going to enjoy using the oven and since my stove is an electric I hope to save on electricity bills this summer while I am running my A/C unit.

Student Artwork.

Brandon — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:00:04 +0000

Our Education Cooperative held an art show recently displaying artwork from students in our school districts. Here is a collection of my favorites. Grades 6-12th.

The Future of News

Brandon — Mon, 17 May 2010 04:52:27 +0000

A discussion of the future of news with Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine, Steve Coll of the New America Foundation (ex of the Washington Post) and John Sturm of the Newspaper Association of America:

Read the full story on the BuzzMachine

This is Bullshit. (Lecture by Jeff Jarvis)

Brandon — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:43:51 +0000

Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine gave a lecture about how lectures are outmoded forms on education and news. Listening to his talk I remembered being in Junior High School feeling like I was getting the cookie cutter education that Jeff talks about in this video.

I like when he pointed out that in this age of information at our fingertips, learning memorisation is a waste. I believe Jeff is correct. If you can find the facts and conduct research on your own doesn’t that show you have truly learned something? Jeff also talks about how standardized tests are not needed. I will never forget the day when we stopped reading literary works in twelfth grade literature class to get ready for the test coming up at the end of the year. I often wonder what great stories I could have read.

Interview With David Paterson

Brandon — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:51:55 +0000

David Paterson is the screenwriter and producer of the film “Bridge to Terabithia”. David was one of our presenters at the Arkansas Filmmakers Workshop 2010 in Hot Springs Arkansas. The local Arkansas’ students watched the film and had a Q&A with David Paterson afterward. David sat down with me and talked about the story behind “Bridge to Terabithia”, offered advice to young filmmakers and artists, and gave us some information on some of his upcoming projects.

Thank you again David.
Katherine Paterson’s website can be found here.

Interview With Suzi Yoonessi

Brandon — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:30:20 +0000

The Arkansas Filmmakers Workshop was held February 18th-20th 2010 in Hot Springs Arkansas. The venue was the historical Arlington Hotel. Suzi Yoonessi was one of the presenters that conducted workshops for film and design students from local schools in Arkansas. Suzi took time to sit down with me and talk about her upcoming movie she directed “Dear Lemon Lima” and give some advice to young filmmakers.

Thank you again Suzi.

Connect with Suzi:
Movie Site
Twitter
Facebook Group

Robot festival in Tokyo

Brandon — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:05:43 +0000

An international robot exhibition in Tokyo showcases the changing face of robotics.

Full Reuters News Story here.