Handout
Integrated Publishing

Integrated Publishing: Mechanical Advantage

For Students 9th - 10th
Good descriptions and diagrams to help explain the mechanical advantage of machines. Includes sample calculations of this quantity.
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Simple Machines

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Through a five-lesson series with five hands-on activities, students are introduced to six simple machines - inclined plane, wedge, screw, lever, pulley, wheel-and-axle - as well as compound machines, which are combinations of two or...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Tools and Equipment, Part I

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Through a series of activities, students discover that the concept of mechanical advantage describes reality fairly well. They act as engineers creating a design for a ramp at a construction site by measuring four different inclined...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Machines and Tools, Part Ii

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this activity, students gain first-hand experience with the mechanical advantage of pulleys. Students are given the challenge of helping save a whale by moving it from an aquarium back to its natural habitat into the ocean. They set...
eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: Simple Machines

For Students 11th - 12th
From a chapter on Statics and Torque in a Physics textbook. This section of the chapter discusses the different types of simple machines and how to calculate their mechanical advantage. Includes questions, problems and exercises.
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Just Plane Simple

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This instructional activity introduces students to three of the six simple machines used by many engineers. These machines include the inclined plane, the wedge and the screw. In general, engineers use the inclined plane to lift heavy...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Simple Machines From Pyramids to Skyscrapers

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Simple machines are devices with few or no moving parts that make work easier, and which people have used to provide mechanical advantage for thousands of years. Students learn about the wedge, wheel and axle, lever, inclined plane,...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Powerful Pulleys

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students continue to explore the story of building a pyramid, learning about the simple machine called a pulley. They learn how a pulley can be used to change the direction of applied forces and move/lift extremely heavy objects, and the...
Unit Plan
CK-12 Foundation

Ck 12: Physical Science: Screw

For Students 7th - 9th
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] What a screw is, how it works and its mechanical advantage.
Unit Plan
CK-12 Foundation

Ck 12: Physical Science: Wedge

For Students 7th - 9th
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] What a wedge is and its mechanical advantage, how it changes force to make work easier.
Handout
Integrated Publishing

Integrated Publishing: The Inclined Plane and the Wedge

For Students 9th - 10th
Outlines the wedge and inclined plane, including their uses in everyday life and their mechanical advantages.
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Levers: How the Human Body Uses Them to Its Advantage

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students will apply the concept of levers to the human body and build all three classes of levers within a musculoskeletal context. They will be shown how the musculoskeletal system is a system of levers and one example of each type of...
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Statics and Torque: Simple Machines

For Students 11th - 12th
By the end of this section, you will be able to describe different simple machines and to calculate the mechanical advantage.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Wide World of Gears

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In an interactive and game-like manner, students learn about the mechanical advantage that is offered by gears. By virtue of the activity's mechatronics presentation, students learn to study a mechanical system as a dynamic system under...
Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Ck 12 Exploration Series: Simulations: Physics: See Saw

For Students 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] How does a See Saw allow you to "lift" someone who is heavier than you? This module helps students understand about torque and mechanical advantage.
Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Ck 12 Exploration Series: Simulations: Physics: Block and Tackle

For Students 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] A video module where students learn about the relationship between force, work, energy, and mechanical advantage using a simple machine.
Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: Physical Science: Work and Energy

For Students 9th - 10th
Find out about simple machines, calculate the mechanical advantage and efficiency of machines, differentiate potential and kinetic energy, and learn ways to use energy more efficiently.
Graphic
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Lever an Obelisk

For Students 9th - 10th
Investigate the mechanical advantage of the lever in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.
Website
Creative Science Centre

Creative Science Centre: Newton's Experiments

For Students 9th - 10th
A collection of projects that recreated Isaac Newton's experiments as he would have built them in the seventeenth century. The projects include the mechanical advantage possible using three levers, the trajectory of a projectile, air...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Pulley'ing Your Own Weight

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Using common materials (spools, string, soap), students learn how a pulley can be used to easily change the direction of a force, making the moving of large objects easier. They see the difference between fixed and movable pulleys, and...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Levers That Lift

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This lesson introduces students to three of the six simple machines used by many engineers: the lever, the pulley, and the wheel-and-axle. In general, engineers use the lever to magnify the force applied to an object, the pulley to lift...
Lesson Plan
Other

Ontario Council for Technology Education: Designing and Testing a Crane [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
By the end of this project, students will be familiar with the 6 different simple machines and will be able to identify how these machines are used in products and tools they use on a daily basis. They will investigate how mechanical...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Splash, Pop, Fizz: Rube Goldberg Machines

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Refreshed with an understanding of the six simple machines; screw, wedge, pully, incline plane, wheel and axle, and lever, student groups receive materials and an allotted amount of time to act as mechanical engineers to design and...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Claw

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students learn about gear ratios and power by operating toy mechanical cranes of differing gear ratios. They attempt to pick up objects with various masses to witness how much power must be applied to the system to oppose the force of...

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