A Twist on Simple Machines

I'm sitting in our distance learning room with the 5th and 6th grade class from Trinity Luthern just across the street from our ISD. They are busily working on a hypothesis for the chattering teeth sent by COSI Columbus for the Gadget Works program. It's these kids first videoconference and they are awed by the whole thing! Of course, as I've said before, Gadget Works is one of my all time favorite videoconferences.

I'm also reading through the posts in my online class, Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections. Eileen Smith, from Marysville, MI, shared another way to do simple machines with videoconferencing. A neat idea to get kids involved in teaching too!

Another connection that we made was between two fifth grade classes that were studying Simple Machines. The classes had to create a simple machine. They then wrote down their directions (without pictures) on how to re-build the machine. The directions were sent to the other classes. Once the other class received the directions, they built the simple machine without any further assistance for the creators.

The conference was to show the class the simple machines that were built from the written instructions. The students were demonstrate the simple machines and explain what machines were included. The creators were evaluate the simple machine and tell the team builders if they got it correct or if they did something wrong. It was a very fun project. The students have a good time. It was time consuming and we had limited materials are our end, but it fit nicely with our curriculum.

I love this idea! It could be used with many other topics besides simple machines too. What could your students teach another class?