DE Science Elementary
“5-Minute Prep” For
Forces and Motion
Simple Machines
Types of Simple Machines
Types of Simple Machines – The Big Ideas
• The six types of simple machines are the lever, inclined
plane, wheel, pulley, wedge, and screw.
• A lever is a rigid bar that can move at a fulcrum, or fixed
point.
• An inclined plane is a flat slanted surface.
• A wheel is a round disk that rotates around a central axle.
• A pulley is a small wheel with a grooved rim using a rope
to change direction of a pulling force.
• A wedge is an inclined plane with one or two sloping
sides.
• A screw is an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder.
• A complex machine is a machine made of two or more
simple machines.
Types of Simple Machines – Prior Knowledge
Students are fascinated by objects in motion and simple
machines. It will help for students to use the FUNdamental, Making Things Move, to review forces and
motion. It will also be helpful if students have observed or
interacted with toys and other objects that are simple
machines.
Types of Simple Machines – Common Misconceptions
• Machines make less work for people.
– Reality: A machine does not decrease the amount of work.
Instead, a machine makes work easier by changing the size or
direction of the force.
• Machines must have a motor.
– Reality: A machine is a device that transmits and modifies force.
It does not have to have a motor. There are different types of
simple machines which include the lever, inclined plane, wheel,
pulley, wedge, and screw.
Types of Simple Machines – Using DE Science Content
When you close this presentation, you can review the
following recommended resources for Types of Simple
Machines.
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Exploration: Types of Simple Machines
Reading Passage: Let’s Play While We Work
Video: The Lever
Video: The Wheel and Axel
Use the PowerPoint version of this presentation for
hyperlinks to these resources or you can get to them
through the browser or search feature.
Types of Simple Machines – Instructional Ideas
• Create Rube Goldberg machine with at least two
different types of simple machines in it.
– Rube Goldberg was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor,
and author whose drawings depict absurdly-connected machines
functioning in extremely complex ways to produce a simple
result, i.e. squeezing toothpaste on a toothbrush.
– Each design needs a drawing and a paragraph describing how
the task is more complex and which simple machines are
connected to complete the task.
Types of Simple Machines – Instructional Ideas
• Create a simple machine scavenger hunt in the
classroom.
– Students can record the type of simple machine that they find by
drawing a picture of it and writing what the machine does.
– Students can also complete this activity as a home scavenger
hunt for homework.
State Standards:
If you wish to review your state standards regarding Simple
Machines, click here to get to the curriculum standards
search feature of DES.
http://discoveryeducation.com/forward/curriculum.cfm
You can click on any standard to see what resources are
available to teach it.
Additional Information:
For additional content, check the Extend section within the
concept.