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Simple machines

ByBruce Sharp

Simple Machines

Blogging takes time and my recent past has involved a sick wife and a new grandchild. Suburban life is rich with texture. It can make blogging take a back seat. Following is a report of a nice afternoon in my shed with my son! My disabled friends haven’t been ignored, the next blog will be about work with them

My son is a primary teacher. He and a colleague wanted to teach children about simple machines. On a warm afternoon he and I spent a couple of hours making some quick and simple demonstrations for children to explore: inclined plane, lever, screw etc.

It is not possible to make things unbreakable for children. Doing a lot of careful detailed work that becomes destroyed just creates bitter twisted makers. So the work is quick and functional rather than refined and grand. Children are expected to explore it to death!

Originally we intended each machine to give a marble a little ride, but enthusiasm took the screw on another path; we left marble rides to the other machines.

Wheel and axle.
Pulley
Inclined Plane
Lever
Wedge
Screw
Here are our efforts. We make no pretence that these are an exhaustive demonstration of the physics of machines, but are a proud attempt to generate discussion among children. For instance: Is an inclined plane the same as a wedge? Is a screw an adaption of a wedge? How is it that the direction of movement of the marble is different to the direction of the force being applied? How could you use a screw to generate movement for the marble.
The proudest bit is that we made cool stuff from scrap! These teaching resources have been made in the form of a sandwich board so they will fold flat and can be put away. Plywood is cheap and can be scribbled on without conscience by the teacher. In each case we made a little round hole to carry a marble. But, in the case of  the screw we so got carried away by the cleverness of the screw cutter that we forgot about the marble. OOPS He will use our omission to generate discussion.

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