Got a heavy load? No problem!

Last week we became Simple Machine experts. After some investigating in the simple machine books we had in our classroom, we created experiments to show how each simple machine works.

Henry and Rhyane demonstrated different kinds of wedges they found around our classroom - scissors, a shovel, a spoon and fork. The most surprising wedge they discovered was their TEETH!

Sam, Macy, and Mallory built a lever with a ruler as the flat plane and a wooden cube as the fulcrum. They showed us how moving the location of the fulcrum makes the load easier or harder to lift. The closer the fulcrum is to the load, the easier the load is to lift.

Ginger, Kristina, and Jamaine built a pulley. Below they're teaching us that the pulley actually changes the direction of the force because to move the load up you pull down. They realized that an elevator is like a pulley because it moves the load up.

After teaching each other about our machines (and getting plenty of volunteers to help with our experiments!) we set out on a search. You might not believe it, but there are simple machines hiding all over the hallways of Stony Point. Here are a few that we found. See if you can guess which simple machines they are!