Lesson Plan
SEDL

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory: Simple Machines [Pdf]

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
This large PDF file contains seven lessons on simple machines. Includes illustrations. Requires Adobe Reader.
Lesson Plan
TryEngineering

Try Engineering: Simple Machines

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
The purpose of this lesson is to learn about the different types of simple machines and their uses. PDF (requires Adobe Reader) and RTF (requires Word or Notebook).
Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: Simple Machines Webquest

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
This lesson is designed to allow students to explore simple machines through a WebQuest with Internet resources provided for research of simple machines. Students then create a report, with pictures, in Word, and finally, invent their...
Lesson Plan
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mit: Blossoms: Using Geometry to Design Simple Machines

For Teachers 9th - 10th
An MIT engineering professor offers a fun presentation on simple machines, specifically the geometry involved in building them. Students will learn about kinematics ("geometry in motion") and build their own simple machines with a...
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Mn Step: Six Simple Machines: How They Combine to Form Complex Machines

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
For this activity, students predict which simple machines might be inside a small household appliance. They then take it apart to investigate, and record what they discover. In the process, they learn how simple machines are combined to...
Lesson Plan
Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)

Smile: Simple Machines (Grades 1 To12)

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this lesson plan students start by trying to open a paint can with their bare hands. Eventually, they will use a lever to open it. Various activities are used to enforce different simple machines.
Lesson Plan
NASA

Nasa: Simple Machines

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
A lesson plan site that contains activities designed to give grades 3 and 4 experiences in using simple machines.
Lesson Plan
ArtsNow

Arts Now Learning: Dancing Machines [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th
In this lesson, 4th graders explore simple machines through movement and create imaginative new machines through choreographic sequences and collaboration.
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Calculating Kinetics of a Student Designed Machine

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this interactive building experience, students will design and construct a complex machine to do a fairly simple task. Students will calculate several kinetic quantities of different parts of their machine. Students will create an...
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Construction of a Complex Machine Through Classroom Collaboration

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students take a simple task and make it much more complicated using a cardboard box. Each group must use a minimum of six simple machines utilizing at least four types of simple machines. The goal is to keep the initial impulse moving...
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...
Lesson Plan
SRI International

Performance Assessment Links in Science: Some of Its Parts

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
As they examine two variations of a can opener, learners will discuss what the purpose is of each of its sub-parts, and which of the can openers is the better machine. They will also suggest improvements to the can opener. This is a...
Lesson Plan
NASA

Nasa: The Screw

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
In this lesson plan students learn how to make a screw and compare how many turns it takes for different screws to embed into a piece of wood.
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: The Physics and Engineering of a Trebuchet

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this simple machines lab learners investigate how the trebuchet works using their prior knowledge of simple machines. Students then build a trebuchet and analyze the physics and engineering that goes into building and launching it.
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Investigating the Inclined Plane Through Inquiry

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this activity, young scholars will use different materials to find the most effective way to use an inclined plane (in other words, moving an object with as little force as possible). This is a guided inquiry. Although the students...
Lesson Plan
TryEngineering

Try Engineering: Trebuchet Toss

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A lesson plan through which students design and build a small trebuchet from everyday materials. After building and testing their models, students will compete to see whose prototype produces the farthest launch.
Lesson Plan
Other

How to smile.org: Building Pulleys

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
An activity where young scholars use pulley systems to pick up a paint can and move an eraser from the ground to the top of a desk. After completing this activity, students will understand how pulley systems can help us do work.
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: First Class Levers

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Through observation and inquiry, students are given various objects to investigate how levers work and why they might be useful.
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Levers:relationship of Force of Effort & Resistance Fulcrum Placement

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students investigate the relationship between the two forces and the location of the fulcrum in a first class lever. Students work in cooperative groups of approximately three to make observations that they can then generate a formula...

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