Simple Machines

Activity: The Franklin Institute Online

Write these down on a piece of paper: 

lever
pulley
wheel and axel
inclined plane
screw
wedge

Making Simple Machines Complicated

Rube Goldberg is famous for inventing machines that made simple tasks complicated. Choose your favorite and print it off. Use tally marks to find the number of simple machines in the picture. Then, use Excel or another graphing program to make a graph of all the simple machines you found. Check out these cartoons.

Making Life Easier

Have you ever wondered how simple machines make life much easier? Your job now is to locate living examples of each simple machine. You can use the Internet, a scanner, or a digital camera.

Import a picture of each machine into a program such as KidPix or The Writing Center.  Type your own caption under each illustration to depict how each machine is making life easier for people.

Try these web sites!

Inventor's Toolbox, the Elements of Machines

Gadget Anatomy

Simple Machines 

Simple Machines and Early Mining

Now it's your turn to be an inventor!  Using Kid Pix create a drawing of a brand new contraption using at least two simple machines.  Label the simple machines.  What problem does this machine solve in your life?

What Did You Learn?

Go to the site.

Read the summary of Matter on the Move, Topic 6.

Take the quiz. Start Here

Tonya Witherspoon
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