TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Putting Robots to Work With Force & Friction
Students learn about the concept of pushing, as well as the relationship between force and mass. Students practice measurement skills using pan scales and rulers to make predictions about mass and distance. A LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robot is...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Simple Machines From Pyramids to Skyscrapers
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,...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Just Plane Simple
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...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Levers That Lift
This instructional activity introduces middle schoolers 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...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: A Simple Solution for the Circus
In this activity, students are challenged to design a contraption using simple machines to move a circus elephant into a rail car. After students consider their audience and constraints, they work in groups to brainstorm ideas and select...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Modern Day Pyramids
Students investigate the ways in which ancient technologies - six types of simple machines and combinations - are used to construct modern buildings. As they work together to solve a design problem (designing and building a modern...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: The Claw
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...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Simple Machines
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...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Ap Physics: Statics and Torque: Problems and Exercises
This is a list of 40 problems/exercises to solve covering the content of Chapter 9: Statics and Torque from the AP Physics online text.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Statics and Torque: Simple Machines
By the end of this section, you will be able to describe different simple machines and to calculate the mechanical advantage.
Concord Consortium
Concord Consortium: Molecular Workbench Showcase: Physics, Mechanics
A collection of simulations representing concepts discussed in a mechanics unit of physics.
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Goldburger to Go
Apply principles of physics as you add parts to an unfinished Rube Goldberg design in this interactive game. Examine clues and make adjustments to complete a food delivery machine.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Simple Machines
Activities reinforce the concept that all simple machines transfer force.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Forces & Motion With Simple Machines
Third graders will sort simple machines according to an applied force --push or a pull.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Trb 3:3 Investigation 3 Weighty Mistakes
Understand the concept of "work" and the use of levers.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Using Force and Motion
Learn what happens when a force is applied to an object.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: There's a Machine in My Toy Box!
Simple machines are everywhere, even many of your toys are simple machines. Come visit this science fair project and explore the six types of simple machines. Find out how many are hiding under the hinged lid (yes, another simple...
PBS
Pbs: Sesame Street: Science
A collection of interactives, videos, and documents on a variety science concepts.
Other
Mechanical Systems
A collection of resources on how humans use machines and tools to meet their needs. Covers simple and complex machines, subsystems that transfer forces, mechanical advantage, speed ratio, the effect of friction, efficiency, the science...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Gears: Lift It Up!
In this activity, students learn about the trade-off between speed and torque when designing gear ratios. The activity setup includes a LEGO pulley system with two independent gear sets and motors that spin two pulleys. Each pulley has...
Utah Education Network
Uen: Third Grade Writing Lesson #2 / Science Prompt
Third graders will invent a gadget using one or more simple machines and write about it.
Other
Ontario Council for Technology Education: Designing and Testing a Crane [Pdf]
By the end of this project, learners 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...
Hunkins Experiments
The Secret Life of Machines
An entertaining site that communicates ideas through cartoon drawings. Discover how simple machines and gadgets operate, such as fax machines and washing machines.
Soft Schools
Soft Schools: Simple Machines
Identify the six simple machines by dragging the correct term, and dropping it onto the associated simple machine.