Curated OER
Simple Machines
Learners discover that simple machines reduce the effort required in a task. In this simple machines instructional activity students see demonstrations of simple machines.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Dirtmeister's Science Lab: Levers
Step into Dirtmeister's Science Lab and help him answer the challenge question: "How can you lift four times your weight?" Learn about levers, make your predictions and then do the experiment.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Levers Weight Lifters
During this lesson, students will have the opportunity to explore levers through hands-on experiences and by navigating the Internet. This lesson allows students to use their experiences to determine how levers and other simple machines...
Creative Science Centre
Creative Science Centre: Newton's Experiments
A collection of projects that recreated Isaac Newton's experiments as he would have built them in the seventeenth century. The projects include the mechanical advantage possible using three levers, the trajectory of a projectile, air...
Museum of Science
Museum of Science and Industry: Online Science: Build a Lever
Step-by-step illustrated instructions for an experiment investigating how a lever works. An explanation of the science involved is given at the end.
My Science Site
Experiments With Levers [Pdf]
This resource details a cooperative learning activity on experimenting with levers. Offers eight different tests students can engage in. A student data sheet is also provided for students to record their findings. This resource is in PDF...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Balancing Mobiles
In this lesson plan, middle schoolers will apply mathematical, science, and engineering concepts to experiment with balancing levers. They will learn to classify types of levers to design and build a simplified mobile. Students will...
Maryland Science Center
Maryland Science Center: March Madness Finger Basketball [Pdf]
Build a miniature basketball court, and use a spoon lever to shoot balls into the basket. Experiment with different materials to see which one works the best.
Center of Science and Industry
Cosi Columbus: Weight for It!
Science experiment that demonstrates how balances work. Includes full list of materials, procedures, and scientific explanation of how to compare the weight of different objects.
The Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute Online: The Incredible Lever
This site contains a scientific experiment in which students build a lever by using a wood plank and brick.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Simple Machines From Pyramids to Skyscrapers
Simple machines are devices with few or no moving parts that make work easier, and which people have used to provide mechanical advantage for thousands of years. Students learn about the wedge, wheel and axle, lever, inclined plane,...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Catapults: Controlled Investigations
In this structured inquiry, young scholars will investigate a catapult system. Having previously explored and identified the variables of the catapult system (length of lever, mass of shot, angle of catapult), students will conduct...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Simple Machines
During this instructional activity, learners learn about the six types of simple machines. They define each type of machine, experiment with each type, utilize the Internet to explore each type of machine and build their own simple...
NASA
Nasa: Simple Machines
A lesson plan site that contains activities designed to give grades 3 and 4 experiences in using simple machines.
Other
Ontario Council for Technology Education: Designing and Testing a Crane [Pdf]
By the end of this project, young scholars will be familiar with the 6 different simple machines and will be able to identify how these machines are used in products and tools they use on a daily basis. They will investigate how...
My Science Site
Life Systems: Cells, Tissues, Organs
Extensive site for teachers provides some helpful resources that pertain to plant and animal cells. Includes a microscope diagram as well as plant, animal and pond labs. Also contains links to structures and mechanisms, matter and...
Walter Fendt
Walter Fendt: Apps Zur Physik
This site, in German, offers numerous apps that illustrate common physics principles. Apps are organized into categories: mechanics, oscillations and waves, electrodynamics, optics, thermodynamics, the theory of relativity, physics of...