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Simple Machines

Create These 5 Fantastic Devices That Move

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Are you teaching a unit about simple machines or things that move? Use these tried and tested recipes to help get you started with student friendly instructions for devices that your students can build and test as part of their science units or makerspace. Come have a read!

One of the best sciences units includes making devices that move. One of the best things about teaching science is having students create amazing things when they are just left with their knowledge and their creativity. We love to foster this type of learning in our classroom.

If you teach simple machines, then there are so many different opportunities to have students create and build exciting contraptions. We pulled together a list of ideas and a few of our favourite recipes for devices that move to make your search quick and painless.

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15 Simple Machines Activities that Will Hook Your Students

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If you are teaching simple machines in your science class, you need to read this post full of ideas.

Simple machines are basic tools that make work easier by changing the size or direction of a force. Here is our list of the six simple machines, with an everyday example of each: the lever (seesaw), pulley (flagpole), wheel and axle (bicycle), inclined plane (ramp), wedge (axe), and screw (jar lid).

One of our favourite science units to teach is about simple machines or wheels and levers (if you teach in Alberta). We love it because it provides many opportunities for hands-on learning and can be done inside regardless of the weather. Students love to build contraptions, and we can use up materials that would generally go in the recycling bin, so it’s also a very low-cost science unit. Which of these activities have you tried during your science lessons?

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