4th-graders take a shine to solar cookout for lunch

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

Youngstown

Instead of firing up the grill for a lunchtime cookout, fourth-graders at William Holmes McGuffey Elementary School lined boxes with aluminum foil and black construction paper and let the sun do the work.

Students in Colleen Helmick’s class cooked 140 hot dogs and 275 each of s’mores and English muffin pizzas using only the heat of the sun.

“It’s so we don’t use up fossil fuels, because they’re not renewable,” explained MacKenzie Acierno, 10. “It’s alternative energy.”

“It’s better for the environment,” added Anthony Mitchell, 9.

Charles Sidberry, 11, said the students collected shoeboxes and brought them in for the project.

Shoeboxes were used to cook the hot dogs while pizza boxes, donated by Cocca’s Pizza, Pizza Pan and Papa John’s, cooked the pizzas and s’mores.

Britney Thom and Genesis Brown, both 10, looked forward to eating the treats, especially the s’mores, said Genesis.

“We cut foil and black paper to put in the boxes,” Britney said. “That catches the heat.”

The boxes then were covered in plastic and set atop black trash bags to provide more heat.

It’s not a quick process — students arrived about 7:30 a.m. to prepare the food. Cooking started about 9:30, and the food wasn’t served until about 2 p.m.

“We even have s’mores without chocolate for a teacher who can’t eat chocolate and kosher hot dogs for a student who can’t eat anything else,” Helmick said.

She’s been doing the solar-cookout project with her classes for 12 years, but Friday marked the last time. After 32 years teaching in the city and teaching for eight years before that in the parochial system, Helmick is retiring next month.

The solar cookout wraps up the class’s unit on alternative energy, and the teacher believes it’s a way to get students interested in science. Helmick loves science and tries to impart her love for the subject onto her students.

She also believes “science has to be done, not just read” and leads her classes through projects that emphasize that.

Zack Semlani, 10, walked around the makeshift solar ovens, watching the progress. Preparing the food was sloppy work.

“We got a lot of stains on our shirts,” he said. “It got messy.”

They changed before the start of the school day, though, and Zack looked forward to sampling his own handiwork.

“I think the s’mores are going to be delicious,” he said.