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Pot-in-Pot Cooling Experiment

Description:

Mohammed Bah Abba, a Nigerian native, has won the 2001 Rolex Awards for Enterprise for his invention of a simple cooling system that can help preserve food in rural areas where there is no electricity. Eggplants stay fresh for 27 days, instead of the usual three. Tomatoes and peppers last for up to three weeks. The pot-in-pot system works simply by putting a smaller clay pot inside a larger one. The two are separated by a constantly moist sand. Evaporation causes a cooling affect in the inner pot. This activity will allow students to construct this cooling system. Some simple experiments will then be conducted to evaluate its functionality.

Materials

Description Amount
Clay pots large and small
1 each
sand
water to keep the sand moist
cloth to cover the pot
a gogoboard with a temperature sensor

Procedures

Mini Workshop (~2 hours)

  • Overview of the project and describe the experiment (15 min)
  • Hands-on ( ~60-90 min)
    • Construction of the system takes about 20 minutes
    • Students then leave the pot for 40 minutes or longer with a gogoboard inside to measure the temperature.
  • Conclusion and discussion (15 min)

Setup

  • This experiment could perhaps takes place together with the hotdog cooker. Since most of the time spent is waiting for the cooling effect to take place, they could work on the hotdog cooker as well.

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