SIMPLE MACHINES

WebQuest
4th Grade
Designed by: Leslie Berlinger

INTRODUCTION

Did you ever image your life without a bicycle, school bus, hammer, computer, game boy, or microwave? All of these things are made up of one or more simple machines. In third grade you were introduced to the six types of simple machines. Now is the time to review, explore, and test your knowledge.

TASK/PROCESS

You will be given four jobs to complete this assignment. Your first job today is to choose one of the following simple machines.

Pulley
Wheel and Axle
Lever
Screw
Wedge
Incline Plane

Your second job is to take your chosen simple machine, and use the web sites below to review, and explore.
After your review and exploration your third job is to use the web sites to:

Play the game at the end of Inventor's Toolbox
Complete activity in "mikids"
Take one quiz
Pick an experiment on your chosen simple machine and present it to the class
Complete the activity and observation sheet in the Dirtmeister web site

After you have completed the above activities, your fourth and final job is to copy and e-mail your observation sheet, and a short paragraph outlining your experiment, to the teacher.

RESOURCES

Inventor's Toolbox: the Elements of Machines (GAME)
http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/InventorsToolbox.html

The Franklin Institute - Simple Machines
http://www.fi.edu/qa97/spotlight3/spotlight3.html

Work is Simple With Simple Machines
http://www.ed.uri.edu/SMART96/ELEMSC/SMARTmachines/machine.html

Marvelous Machines (EXPERIMENTS)
http://www.galaxy.net/~k12/machines/index.shtml

Simple Machines (QUIZ)
http://www.smartown.com/sp2000/machines2000/main.htm

Brain POP- Simple Machines
http://www.brainpop.com/tech/simplemachines

Dirtmeister: Simple Machines - Investigate the facts (OBSERVATION & RECORD)
http://teacher.scholastic.com/dirtrep/simple

CONCLUSION

Students will explore and complete activities using information from the web sites. They will complete an observation sheet, and chose an experiment to demonstrate in class. They will also send an e-mail response which will include the observation sheet and a paragraph outlining their experiment.

ASSESSMENT

You will be given two science grades, one on your "Observation Sheet," and one on your experiment presentation, and a writing grade on your e-mail response.