Pre and post-visit activities Inventions in the home
Vocabulary List
Adult Education at Scienceworks
Pre-visit
Activity 1: Useful tools
Activity 2: Simple machines
Activity 3: Levers around the house
Post-visit
Activity 4: Inventions
These activities are designed to familiarise Certificate I students with the concepts and vocabulary
they will encounter when they visit the House Secrets exhibition at Scienceworks, and to reinforce and
extend their knowledge afterwards.
You may need to modify or extend some of the ideas presented to best suit the needs of your students
or student groups. Students should become familiar with the following words and their meanings,
particularly those used in the exhibition synopsis and on-site activities, before they visit Scienceworks.
Inventions in the home
http://museumvictoria.com.au/Scienceworks/Education/
Vocabulary list - Inventions in the home
Adult Education at Scienceworks
Words
Activities
Words
Activities
appropriate
complex
forces
fulcrum
inclined plane
lever
machines
pivoted
pulley
ramp
rotates
same rate
Activity 1
On-site
activities
adapt, adapted
arthritis
commercially available
investigations
specified task
Activity 2
appliances
axles (and wheels)
design
devices
gears
hygiene
influenced
invent, invention, inventor
lever
machines
most effective, least effective
porch
portraits
technology
utensils
wedge
Activity 4
appliance
apply
effort
fulcrum
implements
load
Activity 3
conserve energy
energy efficient
inventor, invention
motivation
Inventions in the home
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Activity 1: Useful tools
Aim
Find out about how tools work or how they can be adapted to
do special jobs or help people.
What to do
Carry out one of the following investigations and write a report.
1
Design a tool
Adult Education at Scienceworks
•
Design a tool that does a specified task.
•
Describe the simple machines that the tool makes use of. Your report should include a
description of these simple machines.
2
Adapt a tool
•
3
Write a report on how a common tool or household appliance can be adapted for
people who have a disability, for example arthritis.
Write a handbook
The handbook should include:
•
The name of the tool;
•
Diagrams and pictures;
•
The simple machines that the tool makes use of;
•
A description of these simple machines;
•
Where the tool is used;
•
How the tool is operated.
4
Interview a person with a disability
The write up of the interview should include:
•
The disability (for example arthritis);
•
Problems that the person experiences because of the disability;
•
The ways in which everyday tools have been adapted to make them easier to use.
Inventions in the home
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Activity 2: Simple machines
Machines make it easier for us to do work. They can do this by allowing us to use a smaller
force over a greater distance, changing the size of forces, changing the direction of forces, or
by changing the speed at which something moves.
Adult Education at Scienceworks
There are six types of simple machines:
• A lever consists of a rigid bar pivoted about a fulcrum. One example of a lever is a bottle
opener.
• A wheel and axle consists of a wheel that rotates at the same rate as the axle that is
connected to its centre. Examples include a door knob and a steering wheel of a car.
• A pulley consists of a wheel with a rope that can raise loads.
• An inclined plane is a sloping surface that can be used to raise a load. One example of
an inclined plane is a ramp.
• A wedge is an object with two inclined planes. One example of a wedge is a knife blade.
• A screw is an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder or cone. Examples of screws
include cork screws, jam jar lids, nuts and bolts.
What you need
•
•
•
•
Old newspapers and magazines
Scissors
Glue
Seven sheets of poster paper (A3 size)
Inventions in the home
What to do
You may choose to do this activity in groups.
1. Collect some old magazines.
2. Look through the magazines and cut out simple machines.
3. Separate your pictures into the different types of simple machines. (i.e levers, pulley’s etc.)
Some machines may include more than one type. Put these into a separate group.
4. Write the name of each type of machine on each sheet of poster paper. One of the posters
will have the heading Complex machines. These will be the machines that include more
than one type of simple machine.
5. Glue the appropriate machines under the correct heading on each poster.
6. Choose one group of machines and choose two machines.
Write what the machines are used for and what you could use instead of these machines if
they were not invented.
Optional
• Investigate how the ancient Egyptians used simple machines to build the pyramids.
• Investigate Leonardo Davinci’s fascination with simple machines.
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Activity 3: Levers around the house
Aim
Find out which appliances around your house use levers. Classify them into their classes.
Background information
Levers can be classified into three groups; first class, second class or third class.
First class levers have the fulcrum between the load and the effort.
Second class levers have the load between the fulcrum and the effort.
Third class levers have the effort between the fulcrum and the load.
Adult Education at Scienceworks
What you need
• A wide range of household tools and implements that use levers.
What to do
1 Make up lists of the implements that have first, second and third class levers.
Questions
1 Describe how one implement from each list makes it easier to do work.
2 Draw a diagram of each of these implements and mark in the location of the fulcrum, load
and effort.
Optional
Inventions in the home
•
•
Which implements increase the force you can apply?
Which implements increase the speed you can achieve?
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Activity 4: Inventions
What you need
• Research facilities
What to do
Many inventions have improved our way of life. Look up the name of an invention of your
choice and answer the following questions.
Adult Education at Scienceworks
PART A
1. Was there a motivation/reason or need to invent this object?
2. What did people use for the same purpose before this object was invented?
3. What affect did this invention have on your lifestyle/society?
4. Present your findings to your class members.
PART B
1. Has science gone too far by making life too easy for us around the home?
2. Do you think we waste a lot of energy? What are some ways we can conserve energy?
3. What would be the advantages of making a home more energy efficient?
4. What type of energy will you be saving?
Inventions in the home
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