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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.
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Activity
PBS

Pbs Teachers: Door Opener

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Apply knowledge of simple machines to design on paper and then construct a device that will open a door from across the room.
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PPT
Sophia Learning

Sophia: Mechanical Efficiency: Lesson 3

For Students 9th - 10th
This lesson will introduce the concept of Mechanical Efficiency and explain how to calculate it for simple machines. It is 3 of 3 in the series titled "Mechanical Efficiency."
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PPT
Sophia Learning

Sophia: Mechanical Efficiency: Lesson 1

For Students 9th - 10th
This lesson will introduce the concept of Mechanical Efficiency and explain how to calculate it for simple machines. It is 1 of 3 in the series titled "Mechanical Efficiency."
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Unit Plan
Sophia Learning

Sophia: Mechanical Efficiency: Lesson 2

For Students 9th - 10th
This lesson will introduce the concept of Mechanical Efficiency and explain how to calculate it for simple machines. It is 2 of 3 in the series titled "Mechanical Efficiency."
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Activity
Science Museum of Minnesota

Science Museum of Minnesota: Thinking Fountain: Friction

For Students 3rd - 8th
The Thinking Fountain provides this simple experiment for understanding friction and it relationship to energy.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Force on a Current Carrying Wire

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students use a simple set up consisting of a current carrying wire and a magnet to explore the forces which enable biomedical imaging. In doing so, students run a current through a wire and then hold magnets in various positions to...
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Website
Other

R Campus: Rubric Studio & Rubric Gallery

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
This is a great free rubrics site. The Rubric Studio is a comprehensive rubric design and assessment tool. Teachers can build simple rubrics or complex rubrics with multiple sections and flexible number of rows and columns. In addition,...
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Activity
PBS

Pbs Teachers: Curious George: Ramp N Roll Experiment

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
Identify simple principles of physical science and engineering by exploring ramps and things that roll. Predict which items will slide or roll down a ramp and test your predictions.
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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...
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Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Give Yourself a Lift: Lightening the Load With Pulleys

For Students 9th - 10th
Before the Industrial Age, people relied on muscle power for moving and lifting heavy objects. Here's a project that shows you how you can use your head to make heavy lifting easier on your muscles - and your back.
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Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Effect of Trebuchet Arm Length or Counterweight Mass on Project

For Students 9th - 10th
A trebuchet is a catapult that uses a counterweight to supply the energy for throwing. They were used in the Middle Ages for attacking castle walls. In this project, you build your own model trebuchet and investigate how design changes...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Watch It Slide!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students use inclined planes as they recreate the difficult task of raising a monolith of rock to build a pyramid. They compare the push and pull of different-sized blocks up an inclined plane, determine the angle of inclination, and...
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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...
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Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Work and Force

For Students 6th - 9th
Given descriptions, illustrations, graphs, or charts, students will contrast situations where work is done with different amounts of force to situations where no work is done, such as moving a box with a ramp and without a ramp or...
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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 students 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.
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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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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Slide Right on by Using an Inclined Plane

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Learners explore building a pyramid, learning about the simple machine called an inclined plane. They also learn about another simple machine, the screw, and how it is used as a lifting or fastening device. During a hands-on activity,...
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Handout
Scholastic

Scholastic: Dirtmeister's Science Reporters: The Lever

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This site provides a description of the lever and its many uses.
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Lesson Plan
TryEngineering

Try Engineering: Here Comes the Sun

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students work in teams to learn about solar panel design, simple circuits, and how solar energy is used to provide power to simple machines such as calculators.
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Handout
Scholastic

Scholastic: Dirtmeister: The Inclined Plane

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
This site from Dirtmeister gives information on how the Ancient Egyptians used the inclined plane. Dirtmeister explains the inclined plane and its uses.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Get Your Motor Running

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate motors and electromagnets as they construct their own simple electric motors using batteries, magnets, paper clips and wire.
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Activity
PBS

The Math of Bicycles: Wheel Figure This Out (Grades 4 7)

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Several good activities here. Look particularly at Wheel Figure It Out (which is the opening page) and Gearing Up. There are answers to the very good questions at the bottom of each.
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Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Bomb's Away! A Ping Pong Catapult

For Students 3rd - 8th
With this project you'll send ping pong balls flying through the air with a rubber-band powered catapult. This catapult makes it easy to reproduce the launch angle, and to measure the amount of force applied to the projectile. Armed with...

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