I opted to checkout websites that could be helpful to students while learning about Simple Machines. Brainpop.com is the first place I went. It has cartoon vignettes that are informative, engaging and educational. My students LOVE the videos. Brainpop.com covers a wide range of topics from science to health to history to math to language arts. For Simple Machines, there are clips for: the lever, incline plane, wheel and axel, pulley, and gears, in addition to clips about assembly lines and work. Each clip is accompanied by quizzes. One of the quizzes can be taken on line with immediate feedback. The students can print the results. Also available are quizzes the teacher can print and have the students take. These do not give immediate feedback. They must be graded.
The drawback to Brainpop.com is that you must have an account to use it. The good news is you can set up a trial account to use with your classes. Our teachers pushed hard to get our school to purchase a subscription. Most of us use the site often throughout the year. The simple machines brainpop clips could be used separately to introduce or review each machine to an entire class. I would consider taking my classes to our computer lab. Each student would be given the printed quizzes to take. They could watch each of the clips and take the quizzes at their own pace. Check it out. http://www.brainpop.com/
EdHeads.org is another great site to use while teaching Simple Machines. The cartoon pages are also, informative, engaging, and educational, in addition to being interactive. I used this site a few years ago; the one year I did teach physical science My students really enjoyed interacting with the program. Because this site is interactive, the students would each need to use their own computer. The EdHeads.org site is free to all interested. You do not need an account. I would highly recommend checking this site out. http://www.edheads.org/activities/simple-machines/index.shtml
The previous two sites are ones I was already familiar with. The next two, however were the only ones I found during my lengthy search. They are both really good. The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago had a fabulously adorable interactive game that is too fun to pass up. http://www.msichicago.org/fileadmin/Activities/Games/simple_machines/ When I played the game, I learned while laughing out loud at how cute the character was. I highly recommend that you take a look at it. It will make you smile.
The final treasure I uncovered was a Rube Goldberg interactive game. I found this student friendly interactive webpage at PBS.org. http://pbskids.org/zoom/games/goldburgertogo/rubegame.html A great way to enrich the simple machine’s concepts is to introduce students to Rube Goldberg designs.
“A Rube Goldberg machine, contraption, invention, device, or apparatus is a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg” (Wilipedia.org).
The webpage shows a cartoon Rube Goldberg in which the students need to make 13 adjustments to have the contraption operate correctly. This hands-on experience would be a great way to introduce the idea of Rube Goldberg machines. It was challenging and a lot of fun.
I believe I have indeed dug up some good treasures to be used in any classroom, no matter the age of the learner. Students today, need to be 21st century literate citizens. Although these websites are simple, they show students what types of things are available on line. Not all of my students have computers at home, so it is beneficial for them to use the computers at school. Simply by using computers to learn, helps students to become more comfortable with computer technology. Our county will pilot a program within a few of the schools. The students will all be given tablets to use. This is the wave of the future.
