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Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Make a Flat Ball

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Using simple geometric shapes cut out of paper and taped together to create a ball that is as round as possible with this challenge. This page also includes a lesson plan, tips, and a place for students to document their engineering...
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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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Interactive
PBS

Pbs Teachers: Goldburger to Go

For Students 3rd - 5th
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.
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Graphic
Curated OER

University of Rochester: Steam Engine Simple Machine

For Students 9th - 10th
image of steam engine simple machine
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Graphic
Curated OER

University of Rochester: Steam Engine Simple Machine

For Students 9th - 10th
image of Steam Engine Simple Machine
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Handout
Scholastic

Scholastic: Dirtmeister's Science Reporters: Simple Machines: Pulley

For Teachers 9th - 10th
With-it explanation of how the pulley works, where it's found. Most interesting, as Scholastic material usually is.
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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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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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Activity
Concord Consortium

Concord Consortium: Molecular Workbench Showcase: Physics, Mechanics

For Students 9th - 10th
A collection of simulations representing concepts discussed in a mechanics unit of physics.
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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...
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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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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...
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Activity
Other

D&t Online: Levers

For Students 9th - 10th
This site illustrates different classes of levers that are used in simple machines.
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Activity
Museum of Science

The Museum of Science: Gadget Anatomy

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from The Museum of Science presents some compound machines and asks students to identify which simple machines they are composed of. Students provide their answer and receive immediate feedback.
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Unit Plan
Beacon Learning Center

Beacon Learning Center: How Can We Move Our Principal?

For Students Pre-K - 1st
In this problem solving exercise, students must decide which simple machine would work best in different situations, in order to help the principal manoeuvre himself after he has hurt his leg and can't walk. The site has a good tutorial...
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Lesson Plan
Other

Uss Constitution Museum: Constructing a Warship

For Teachers 1st - 5th
USS Constitution was built as a fighting machine and utilized the six simple machines of science to accomplish the many tasks required of her. Students will identify and manipulate these machines to create inventions that would have made...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: How a Faucet Works

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students learn about the underlying engineering principals in the inner workings of a simple household object - the faucet. Students use the basic concepts of simple machines, force and fluid flow to describe the path of water through a...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Let's Move It!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young scholars explore methods employing simple machines likely used in ancient pyramid building, as well as common modern-day material transportation. They learn about the wheel and axle as a means to transport materials from rock...
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Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: Levers Weight Lifters

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
During this lesson, learners will have the opportunity to explore levers through hands-on experiences and by navigating the Internet. This lesson allows students to use their experiences to determine how levers and other simple machines...
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Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Ck 12: Plix: Simple Machines: Lever

For Students 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] Drag the labels to identify the different parts of the wheelbarrow as parts in a lever.
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Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Ck 12: Plix: Simple Machines: Lever

For Students 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] Drag the labeled triangles to indicate where the fulcrum of this third-class lever is as well as the input and output forces.
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Website
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology

Iris: Earthquake Machine: Basic One Block & Simple Graph Animated

For Students 9th - 10th
Animation of the single-block "Earthquake Machine" model shows how "Forces, Faults, and Friction" interact. [0:16]
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Website
Other

Rube Goldberg

For Students 9th - 10th
Get a look into the life of the wacky machine inventor Rube Goldberg. Includes a terrific biography, a gallery of his cartoon inventions, and a link to The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.
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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, students 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...

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