The Lucerne Valley Elementary School Solar Chefs took first place in the solar oven design and recipe contests at the 7th Annual Solar Oven Cook-Off at the Victor Valley Museum last Saturday, May 18.
This was the students’ first time participating and they represented Lucerne Valley proudly, said team manager Liu Hirschhorn, especially consider the obstacles Mother Nature put up for the competitors. It was a challenging day as it was overcast at times and winds kicked up, causing the competition to stop.
The Solar Chefs persevered and successfully completed cooking their chocolate chip desert and were in the process of cooking Pecan Encrusted Salmon and Turkey Wrapped Asparagus when the wind overcame the sun on Saturday.
“Their umbrella oven did surprisingly against the wind,” Mrs. Hirschhorn added.
For their ingenuity the LVES team won $550. The team participants were Charlize Terletter (5th grade), Sebastian Craycraft (4th grade), and Iraina Perez (4th grade).
The Solar Oven Cook-Off provides students in grades 4-12 an opportunity to utilize their STEM and critical thinking skills working as a team to design, build, and create a solar cooker and winning recipe. The event is sponsored by the Mojave Environmental Educational Consortium (MEEC) and the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District (MDAQMD). More than $3,000 in prizes were awarded to High Desert teams.