Edheads.com -- Simple Machines

Edheads – Simple Machines

This site is one of the best I have found for exploring simple and compound machines.

I would have my students use Google.com and tell them to type in Edheads and click on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. Once they get to the site they all click on the Simple Machines tab. Students can either explore “The House” or “The Tool Shed”. I have them start with “The House” because this is where the simple machines are found and after that they can move to the tool shed for more advanced compound machines. In the house there are four rooms to explore. A friendly orange robot welcomes you into whatever room you choose. He asks if you can look around and find ten simple machines in that room. In the garage for example there is a car on a lift and if you click on the wheel of the car a window pops up and you have to answer a few multiple choice questions about wheels. The first question asks what wheels allow the care to do and the choices are 1) Fly through the air. 2) Help catch fish 3) Launch into outer space or 4) Drive and roll. The second question asks what kind of simple machine a wheel is. After answering the second question you click the continue button and you are show a motion graphic with text. The text explains how wheels and axles reduce friction and allow cars to move around freely. The graphic shows a rolling wheel/tire moving back and forth to help the viewer grasp this concept. The graphics are bright and cartoon-like with soft lines and edges which makes the learning fun and friendly.

In “The Tool Shed” students are greeted by the friendly orange robot again. The robot explains that compound machines are made up of two or more simple machines. He gives and example referring to a can-opener and how it uses gears, a lever and a wedge to get a job done. After the intro you are prompted to choose one of the four compound machines to begin. There is a wheelbarrow, stapler, hand-cranked drill and the aforementioned can-opener. If you click on the stapler the robot tells a joke and then asks if you can find the two simple machines that make up the compound machine. After scrolling over the entire stapler you can see that certain parts of the stapler become highlighted in bright yellow indicating that this may be the simple machine you’re looking for. You click the top arm part of the stapler and a window with a question pops up again asking what simple machine it is. After you chose the correct answer you get a brief description of what a lever does and a motion graphic showing how effort, load and fulcrum come into play. The second part is the staple itself and finding out that the staple blade is a wedge is not an easy choice for students…they often choose wrong on first attempt. Again you get to see a motion graphic displaying a wedge with bright red arrows showing where force is applied and what happens when a wedge moved through a material such as a stack of papers.