Here’s a great project for doing with your outdoor kids. Teens, pre-teens, and kids (with adult help) can enjoy building and cooking on a rocket stove. All you need is a few simple materials, basic tools and a few sticks.

Photos are courtesy of George at SpeedReading4Kids – visit his site for detailed instructions on how to build a stove like the one pictured here. George told me that he recently helped boys in his scout troop to build rocket stoves and one of the boys went home and cooked dinner for his mom and 5 siblings using it!

Some time ago I heard about how people in the developing world were being shown how to make stoves that allow you to cook dinner from just a few sticks. Many parts of our beautiful Earth are deforested and have a chronic shortage of wood for fires. In some places children have to walk for miles every day to gather wood. Forest and woodland also depends on the decomposition of fallen wood to maintain the ecosystem. The stove that allows you to cook with just a few sticks is called a rocket stove.

There are many variations on how to make a rocket stove, but basically it incorporates a small platform inside an L shaped chimney which is surrounded by some form of insulating material. You can build one that functions as a camp stove, or make one large enough for communal cooking. The solar cooking wiki has some pictures which will make it clearer.

Resources and homeschool tie-ins to do with rocket stoves:

• See how to build a rocket stove with a few simple materials at Google Video. Spot the safety violations!
• Read about how rocket stoves were introduced to sub-Saharan Africa. They have a nice report on Malawi with photos that show a variety of larger stoves and explain the fuel economy gain with these stoves.
• What one pot meals would be good to cook on a rocket stove? Find recipes and after you make your stove you can try cooking them. If you don’t want to build a stove, try using a campfire or a stove you already have and prepare a one-pot meal.
• If you burn wood in winter or use wood or charcoal for your barbecue where does that wood or charcoal come from and what kind of processing does it go through?
• Research deforestation and which countries are short of fuel wood. Is the deforestation caused by cutting for fuel, or is it due to other reasons, for example clearance for crop planting or for timber?
• If you have trees in your yard, what currently happens to branches and twigs you trim? What alternatives do you have available on how to dispose of them?
• Learn about woodland ecosystems. What does a healthy woodland look like? Where can you see a woodland close to home? Is it first growth forest, or second growth? What type of animals live there and what do they eat? Usborne books that explain about ecosystems and let you explore woodlands include: Great Wildlife Search and the Living World Encyclopedia.

I hope you learn a little about the woodlands around you and have a chance to build a stove.
Happy Learning

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Related posts:

1. Green Cooking
2. Fun With Sticks – Build a Shelter
3. Depression Cooking