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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories 10 things to know for Thursday Calendar: Thursday, Oct. 9 10 things to know for Wednesday Ashland land use rule review continues Council backs bump in tax to support buses Education Building + cooking + eating = learning Students to 'Read More For Jack Dorr' Budget committee members needed Fighting back against hackers SOU wants its students to love Ashland Environment Fires and forests evolved together, but now people are in the mix Marijuana growers are threat to salmon, biologists conclude Annual tour shows how to live green Taking action here, now on global climate change Garden serves up a feast fit for monarchs Business Ashland land use rule review continues From 'drug house' to spa Universal Rites Tattoo Greg Zyla: 1959 430 V-8 Thunderbird owner seeks information Silvio Calabi: Nissan’s Taxi of Tomorrow Politics and elections Ashland land use rule review continues Council backs bump in tax to support buses Travel expert touts pot legalization Videos of local candidate forums airing now on TV Election officials fine Richardson for late reporting of rent-free home State News Nation - World Obituaries Lester "Les" Nugent No farewells were spoken Death Notices Norman Kenneth Mainwaring Death Notices Sports Latest Stories Ashland eases past Eagle Point again, keeps streak alive Balanced Grizzlies shred Comets in MWL blowout It ain't over 'til it's over in the Pac-12 SOU volleyball team up to No. 11 SOU offense looks to catch up with defense in final home stand High school Ashland eases past Eagle Point again, keeps streak alive Balanced Grizzlies shred Comets in MWL blowout SOU volleyball team up to No. 11 Grizzlies keep rolling in MWL opener Pitcher Guthrie's donation boosts new field fund Southern Oregon University Ashland eases past Eagle Point again, keeps streak alive It ain't over 'til it's over in the Pac-12 SOU volleyball team up to No. 11 SOU offense looks to catch up with defense in final home stand No. 11 SOU heads to Klamath Falls with eyes on first place Opinion Latest Stories Our View: A delicate balance downtown Letters to the Editor, Oct. 9 Into the heart of darkness Letters to the Editor, Oct. 8 Granlund cartoon: Border signs Editorial Our View: A delicate balance downtown Our View: Great public effort makes for great public space Our View: Our View SOU control shifts downstate Our view: SOU reaches out to downtown Letters Letters to the Editor, Oct. 9 Letters to the Editor, Oct. 8 Letters to the Editor, Oct. 7 Letters to the Editor, Oct. 6 Letters to the Editor, Oct. 3 Guest opinions Into the heart of darkness Herb Rothschild: Peace begins at the table City still ignores Plaza suggestions Us versus them Remembering a very prominent local lady Revels Latest Stories Listings for Varsity Theatre and Ashland Street Cinemas Works in progress (No heading) Southern Oregon Pride Festival celebrates diversity 'Gone Girl' is a dark, twisting winner Theater Camelot Theatre presents 'Spotlight on Johnny Mercer' Southern Oregon hosts its Lunacy Theatre Festival Friends of Jim Giancarlo remember Ashland theater icon Music Q&A: Band du Pays Swing The Farr Side: Bennett-Gaga collaboration is a cross-generational gem Rogue Valley Symphony opens its 2014-15 season Q&A: Nacosta Muscian's career spins back through Ashland Visual Art Ashland's First Friday Art Walk Movies Listings for Varsity Theatre and Ashland Street Cinemas 'Gone Girl' is a dark, twisting winner Listings for Varsity Theatre and Ashland Street Cinemas Listings for Varsity Theatre and Ashland Street Cinemas New script for film ordinance sent back to rewrite Food and Drink Cruelest Month: Poetry Blog Lifestyle Latest Stories 5 Things to Do This Weekend (Oct. 10-12) Lost in Suburbia: Scaring up a good Halloween costume How to create a fashionable painted floor cloth Dear Monty: 7 prepping tips for home showings Dave Ramsey: Should we rehab home to sell it? 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ASHLAND MIDDLE SCHOOL Building + cooking + eating = learning Seventh and eighth graders build solar-powered ovens for cook-off By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Oct. 7, 2014 @ 5:19 pm By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Oct. 7, 2014 @ 5:19 pm » RELATED CONTENT • Glad to go GREEN: Ashland students win for projects suppo... • VIDEO: Ashland Middle School sustainability project • AMS project revives butterfly garden » Social News The scent of freshly-baked cookies wafted through the air behind the large gym at Ashland Middle School on Monday as a crush of finicky seventh and eighth graders fiddled with mirrors and tinkered with cardboard boxes. They worked through a heavy heat which radiated off the blacktop under the blazing afternoon sun. Unpleasant. But for this particular group of teenagers on this particular day the conditions happened to be perfect for their assigned task, which was to create magic in their hand-made, solar-powered ovens. “You’re going to rock it,” announced science teacher Kristi Healy before the judging began. “Now introduce your team, your oven and sell, sell, sell.” Led by Healy and fellow AMS science teachers Daniel Otte and Jennifer Craugh, Monday’s cook-off was the culmination of a month of hands-on work by some 400 students at the middle school tasked with demonstrating, in the most delicious way possible, knowledge gained from the school’s engineering and design unit. No larger than a small file cabinet, the mostly cardboard contraptions were outfitted with tinfoil, mirrors, glass and/or cellophane and designed to reach — and, ideally, sustain — temperatures up to 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit). Most of the ovens, set up on the blacktop at 10:30 a.m. in preparation for their 2:10 performance review, vaguely resembled UFOs from 1950s sci-fi movies. And, for the most part, they got the job done. Students labored over their inventions, dished out their creations and explained their work to teachers and parents, who then taste-tested and scored each team’s communication and dish on a scale of one to 10. Some meals were obvious slam dunks, such as the marinara-covered ravioli’s served up by Sienna Scoggin and Jackie Moran, a pair of seventh-graders. It wasn’t easy, said Scoggin — most of the ovens took two hours or more to build — but she was pleased with the result. “We used recycled material like foil, duct tape, old shoe boxes,” Scoggins said. “And then for absorbency we put black paper around the outside of it. And for reflectors we just used old cardboard and put foil on top. And for something for the sun to shine through and to magnify a little bit, we used a piece of glass from a photo frame.” The invention didn’t quite reach the temperature Scoggin and Moran were hoping for, but at 67 degrees Celsius (153 degrees Fahrenheit) it proved to up to the challenge. “It’s delicious,” Healy said after taking a bite of the pasta. “Try some.” Another team created an equally complicated-looking oven bracketed by tinfoil arms with a small, glass-covered cooking compartment in the middle. Charlie Burr and Trevor Fulton, both eighth graders, said temperatures inside reached 85 degrees Celsius, but plummeted to 65 after they opened the door to place their entrée, a pizza pocket, in the makeshift oven. Burr and Fulton had originally planned to bake a cook-off favorite, chocolate chip cookies, but called an audible Sunday night. “Trevor was going to make cookies,” Burr said, “and then at 7 o’clock last night he’s like, ‘So, do you still have those pizza pockets?’ I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ He didn’t want to make (cookies).” Ella Alexander, 12, and Nic VanDerZwan, 13, did make chocolate chip cookies and, since their oven outperformed most by reaching a scorching 100 degrees Celsius, their cookies received a perfect 10 from the judge. That exceeded the expectations of VanDerZwan, who said the cube oven with four tinfoil-wrapped flaps protruding on the glass-covered door side took three and a half hours to construct. “Ms. Healy had this one solar oven in her room called a sun spot and (ours) was pretty much like that, but we just scaled it up,” VanDerZwan said. And how did the cookies taste? “Delicious,” he said. “Quite warm, actually.” Monday’s showcase represented the final stage of the building project, but there’s more work to be done by the students on the back end. Next, they must analyze the results and turn in an official design write-up that conforms to standards set by the Oregon Department of Education. That, says Healy, will finally wrap up a project that began on the first day of school, then progressed through a series of stair steps, including oven designs and prototypes, some of which were ready for construction while others required a complete overhaul. To further help students understand the possibilities of solar power, AMS asked for and received help from True South Solar, an Ashland business which, according to its website , “installs turnkey solar power systems that transform rooftops or land into income streams of clean energy.” Healy visited True South’s office on East Hersey Street and was able to arrange a brief presentation by a True South representative (Ashland school board chairman Jim Westrick) and borrow a solar panel to show students. While there, she also noticed True South’s electric car. She couldn’t resist. “So I said, ‘Can I borrow the car, too?’, and they said 'sure,'” said Healy, now in her 15th year teaching. “So they drove it over here Friday and the kids got to see this car that’s been electrically charged through the sun’s energy.” But on Monday, the focus was the food. Did Healy have a favorite dish? There were many standouts, she said, but as the students packed up their ovens and headed home, one particular creation did come to mind. “Oh, my gosh,” Healy said, nodding emphatically, “I had the most amazing pesto pizza. It has homemade crust and this cured ham. It was outrageous.” Joe Zavala can be reached at 541-776-4469 or [email protected].   By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Oct. 7, 2014 @ 5:19 pm » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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