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Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: How to Make Something Simple, Hard

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers will have completed a unit of forces and motion prior to the current unit of study on simple machines (lever, inclined plane, screw, wedge, pulley, wheel and axle). Students will review the functions and examples of...
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Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Crank Mechanism

For Students Pre-K - 1st
In this challenge, students will transfer rotational motion into linear motion by building a simple machine. The site also includes tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
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Unit Plan
Technology Student

Technology Student: Mechanisms

For Students 9th - 10th
This site describes mechanisms and simple machines, and the basic components used to build them.
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Machines Can Move

For Teachers 2nd
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about simple machines people use every day. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Machines Can Move!

For Students 2nd
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about simple machines used in daily life such as: a pulley, a screw, an inclined plane, a wheel and axle, a wedge, and a lever. A question sheet is available to help students build...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Modern Day Pyramids

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
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...
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Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Robotic Face

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Build a robotic face that can make facial expressions using simple machines on this website. This website includes the challenge, tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
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Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Cam Mechanism

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Create a simple machine that transfers a rotational motion into linear vertical motion with this challenge. The site gives more details on the challenge as well as tips and place to document your design process. Teachers can find a...
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Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Joint Mechanism

For Students Pre-K - 1st
This website challenges students to make a simple machine out of a straw to mimic the movement of joints in your body. The website includes a lesson plan, tips, and a place for students to document their design process.
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Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Construct a Crane

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Can you build a crane that uses simple machines and mechanical advantage to move heavy objects? This website contains a challenge, tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
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Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Create a Circuit to Light an Led

For Students Pre-K - 1st
This website contains a challenge for students to build a simple circuit that enables you to turn on a small LED. The website includes a lesson plan, tips, and a place for students to document their design challenge.
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Pyramid Building: How to Use a Wedge

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students learn how simple machines, including wedges, were used in building both ancient pyramids and present-day skyscrapers. In a hands-on activity, students test a variety of wedges on different materials (wax, soap, clay, foam)....
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Design and Build a Rube Goldberg

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this two-part activity, students design and build a Rube Goldberg machine. The open ended problem uses the engineering design process and can have a preset purpose, such as rolling a marble into a cup from a distance, or can be left...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Power of Mechanical Advantage

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students learn about the mechanical advantage offered by pulleys in an interactive and game-like manner. By virtue of the activity's mechatronic presentation, they learn to study a mechanical system not as a static image, but rather as a...
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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...
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Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Spin Right 'Round With This Simple Electric Motor

For Students 6th - 8th
If you put on clothes that were washed in a washing machine, rode in a car, ate food from a fridge, warmed up lunch in a microwave, or played a video game, you used an electric motor. Try this science fair project and you'll learn how to...
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Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Give It a Lift With a Lever

For Students 3rd - 8th
Simple machines allow us to do difficult tasks like lifting objects heavier than our body weight. In this science project you'll build a tabletop lever and measure how much effort it takes to lift an object by altering the length of the...
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Activity
Museum of Science

Museum of Science and Industry: Online Science: Build a Lever

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Step-by-step illustrated instructions for an experiment investigating how a lever works. An explanation of the science involved is given at the end.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Design Your Own Rube Goldberg Machine

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Rube Goldberg is famous for his very complex machines that accomplish everyday tasks. Students will design and build a Rube Goldberg machine that will accomplish a simple task in no less than ten steps.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Solid Rock to Building Block

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students continue their pyramid building journey, acting as engineers to determine the appropriate wedge tool to best extract rock from a quarry and cut into pyramid blocks. Using sample materials (wax, soap, clay, foam) representing...
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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...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Magician's Catapult

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this activity, students reinforce their understanding of compound machines by building a catapult. This compound machine consists of a lever and a wheel-and-axel. Catapults have been designed by engineers for a variety of purposes -...
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Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Wind Powered Sailboat

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Powered by the wind watch your boat move through the water. This challenge has students making a boat using simple household materials. The website also includes tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering...
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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...