Mike and Kellie, a team of electrical engineers, demonstrate how to to design a contraption that accurately drops a marble onto a target. The materials needed and general instructions are provided on the website or via a downloadable...

Instructions for series of six activites, a reading of scientific literature, and a choice of six assessments await you in this physics resource. Well-written plans guide you in guiding your pupils to experiment with levers, pulleys,...

Students explore the drawings of Rube Goldberg to design and construct a simple machine. They discuss simple machines, and using various materials and toy parts, design and construct a "Rube Goldberg" style machine to ring a bell.

Students examine six simple machines and investigate who Rube Goldberg is. They explore various websites, write an article, write ten interesting facts about Rube Goldberg, and design and construct a simple machine.

Students participate in a culminating activity for a unit on Energy and Simple Machines. They are challenged to incorporate simple machines in to a complex mechanical system. While designing and testing their machine they will also...

Middle schoolers design and construct a Rube Goldberg machine that accomplishes a simple task in at least ten steps. They view and discuss various Rube Goldberg designs, identify types of simple machines, and in small groups produce a...

Fourth graders design a contraption, which contains five different examples of simple machines and works without intervention. They sketch designs and label its parts. They present their creations to the class and relate them to Rube...

Students investigate the inventions of simple machines in our past and how they affect us today.  In this engineering lesson, students discover who Rube Goldberg was and his ideas about complicated machines performing very simple tasks....

Young scholars explore the functions of simple machines. In this simple machines activity, young scholars evaluate the uses of simple machines as they dissect a machine and then design their own.

For this physics worksheet, students visit the site http://sciencespot.net and complete a scavenger hunt for a variety of physics topics.

Fifth graders practice technology skills while searching online for information about inventor, Rube Goldberg. They discuss Rube Goldberg's use of simple machines, and write journal entries about their findings.

Students apply inquiry and problem solving approaches in science. They design a device (invention) that solves a special problem.

Students examine an original engraving of a piece of equipment called, The Grasshopper Catcher. They describe how technologies developed in Iowa during the Industrial Revolution influenced farming practices, and develop hypotheses about...