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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Steep, Steeper, and Steepest

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders discuss ways to move large rocks. They relate this to building a rock garden, and the ways people might load boulders into a truck. Students discuss the use of a ramp vs. lifting the boulder straight up onto the bed of the...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Simple Machines and Mechanical Advantage

For Students 10th - Higher Ed
In this machines worksheet, students review the six simple machines and how to calculate mechanical advantage. Students complete 8 matching, 16 fill in the blank, and 6 problems to solve.
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Forces and Movement

For Students 4th - 5th
In this forces and motion worksheet, students study the 3 illustrations of cars traveling down a ramp. Students determine which cars will earn 1, 2, 3 place based on their motion. Students then draw 2 more cars: one that will travel...
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Unit Plan
Chicago Children's Museum

Simple Machines: Force and Motion

For Teachers 2nd - 4th Standards
Get things moving with this elementary science unit on simple machines. Through a series of nine lessons including teacher demonstrations, hands-on activities, and science experiments, young scientists learn about forces, motion, and...
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Activity
Cherokee County Schools

Simple Machines Project

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
The choice is simple: create a PowerPoint presentation, write a book, or invent a compound machine. Whichever project your young scientists choose, they will be engaged in creatively demonstrating their knowledge of simple machines and...
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Unit Plan
Rube Goldberg

Rube Goldberg's Simple Normal Humdrum School Day

For Teachers K - 8th
If you're going to build a machine, you might as well make it interesting and amusing. A set of eight lessons and activities introduces simple machines using Rube Goldberg machines. A culminating project challenges techies to create and...
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Activity
Teach Engineering

Portable Wheelchair Ramp Challenge

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Ramp up the engineering design process in your classroom with an activity that challenges teams to design, build, and test a small-scale portable wheelchair ramp. The class develops design requirements, and teams test their designs using...
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Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Ramp and Piano

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Can you lift a piano into a truck? Simulation allows scholars to explore the relationship between force, ramp length, and weight. Pupils control the variables of truck bed height, ramp length, weight of piano, and the number of friends...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Geometric Applications

For Teachers 8th - 9th
For this geometry worksheet, students solve 5 word problems. Each of the problems involves finding one side of a right triangle. Story problems relate the Pythagorean Theorem to building ramps, shadows, and the length of a banner.
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Lesson Plan
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Purdue University

Simple Machines – Dog Gone It!

For Teachers 3rd
How can people use simple machines to solve real-world STEM problems? Learn about simple machines using a hands-on, project-based learning activity. First, pupils investigate and evaluate simple machines. Then, they receive a task that...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Farming in the 1930's

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students research and conduct experiments with several types of simple machines. They examine levers, pulleys, inclined planes, wheels, axles, wedges and screws and then consider the physics behind "Green Eggs and Ham".
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Friction Flyers

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Learners explore the principles of magnetism and friction. They complete an interactive puzzle on the Gizmos and Gadgets computer software, construct a vehicle, build and modify ramps and vehicles to produce various outcomes, and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Simple Machines V - Wheels and Axles and Gears

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders investigate the principles and uses of gears, and examine how gears can be used to alter the direction of motion or the speed of an object. They observe two cars with different sized wheels roll down an inclined plane,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Applied Science - Technology (2A) Lab

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders experiment with simple machines. In this machine lesson, 2nd graders go to different labs to see examples of a lever, inclined plane, wedge, pulley, gears, and wheel and axle. They discuss how a machine makes work a lot...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Three, Two, One, Go!

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students work in teams conducting an experiment that demonstrates why the height of an inclined plane affects the speed at which an object travels. They record data on a chart and calculate speed to reveal the results of three trials at...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Simple Machines and Modern Day Engineering Analogies

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students apply the mechanical advantages and problem-solving capabilities of six types of simple machines (wedge, wheel and axle, lever, inclined plane, screw, pulley) as they discuss modern structures in the spirit of the engineers and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rotational Inertia

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students spin themselves to understand rotational inertia. In this Inertia lesson, students will also use ramps, balance beam and pendelum to conduct rotational inertia experiments. Students draw conclusions to explain rotational...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Simple Machines

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders create a Power Point presentation to relate to their study of simple machines. They create a title page, a page introducing six simple machines, slides explaining real world use to each simple machine and import pictures...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Math Mediator Lesson 10: Slope

For Teachers 8th - 9th
Students explore the concept of slope.  In this Algebra I instructional activity, students investigate the definition of slope as rise over run or change in y compared to change in x.  The instructional activity includes a real-world...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

I'm Inclined to See; Physics, Math, Science, Experiments, Graphs

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students discover the motion of a sphere on an inclined plane and discover basic relationships involving distance, time, speed(velocity), and acceleration.
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Organizer
Curated OER

Simple Machines

For Students 7th - 10th
In this simple machines worksheet, students review the different types of simple machines and examples of each machine. This worksheet, has 1 graphic organizer and 6 short answer questions.
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Unit Plan
Broward County Public Schools

Force and Motion

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Get the ball rolling with this upper-elementary science unit on forces and motion. Offering over three weeks of physical science lessons, this resource is a great way to engage the class in learning about simple machines, friction, the...
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Activity
Science Companion

Simple Machines Design Project

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Make your work as a teacher a little easier with a physical science project on simple machines. After introducing young scientists to these devices and identifying their different uses around the school, this project engages children in...
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Activity
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Teach Engineering

A Simple Solution for the Circus

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Class members are challenged to design a device that will move a circus elephant into a train car. Groups brainstorm ideas that use simple machines to load the elephant. They then choose one of their ideas, sketch a plan, and present it...