Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

For my science fair project I will be creating a solar powered water desalinator made out of a plastic one gallon water bottle, 16 oz. plastic bottle, plastic cling wrap, rubber bands, and bendy straws. The sea water contained in the gallon bottle will evaporate, and the drops of condensate will collect on the plastic cling wrap and eventually drip down the low point into a straw which will take it to a new container. I was thinking that if I added aluminum foil reflectors, would this speed up the process?

Why don't you make answering that question one of the goals of your project? That is, you could
compare the performance of two desalinators, one plain and one with reflectors, or, even further, study the rate of desalinization against the area and or material of the reflectors. It'll be more work, but you will have a better project as the result. Best of luck!