Planning a unit on simple machines? Save some time and energy with this collection of lessons and activities that explores how these devices are used in the real world to make life a little easier. 

Teach young engineers that all machines, no matter how complicated or complex, are made up of just six simple devices with this hands-on physical science lesson. Using the included templates, students first create paper models of...

Seventeen pages of material leave you well-prepared to carry out this lesson on levers and pulleys. Photos and diagrams make the instructions clear; resource links provide additional information. The missing aspects of this teacher's...

Students investigate the scientific concept of mechanical advantage. They construct their own system with the use of a simple broomstick. Then the demonstration is done to show how the mechanical advantage is used to move a load.

Students role-play as engineers designing wedge tools. They devise methods for shaping quarry rocks into pyramid blocks. Following a teacher demonstration, they use materials such as soap, clay, and foam for blocks and wood, plastic,...

In an interactive and game-like manner, students learn about the mechanical advantage that is offered by gears. By virtue of the activity's mechatronics presentation, students learn to study a mechanical system as a dynamic system under...

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...