Building Complex Machines To Understand Force & Motion
Pulleys, levers, and inclines, this was the world that Mrs. Liz Jarvis’ 5th graders entered when Mrs. Liberty Cosseti from HighTouch HighTech visited PCA with the goal of creating an intensive scientific experience. Mrs. Cosseti brought all the components needed for students to learn about, and create, a complex machine. “A machine is something that makes work easier,” explains the HighTouch, HighTech website. “The cool thing about machines is that the simplest machine and the most complicated machine work off the same principles.”
Getting into groups of four, Cosseti walked the students through a lesson on the 6 types of simple machines – Inclined Plane, Wedge, Pulley, Wheel and Axle, Screw, and Lever. Students worked together to try and figure out how various components could be put together to create a complex machine, and by the end, and through excited squeals, each group of budding engineers had put together a system where a pulley helped to raise a lever.
This in-house field trip was a “rising” success!