Access to refrigeration is something we take for granted in the United States. However, for many countries refrigeration is not an option for keeping food fresh. In 1995, a teacher in Nigeria named Mohammend Bah Abba developed and began to popularize a low-cost alternative to electric refrigerators called the zeer pot. Several of the authors’ chemistry students, who are also taking ceramics, became intrigued with zeer pots and wanted to study them for their end-of-the-year inquiry projects. This article discusses the students’ investigations of zeer pots, and the use of evaporation as a cooling technique.