Simple Machines

This week we took a closer look at the simple machines we talked about last week - the wheel. Specifically, we are going to talk about gears including lots of fun, hands on simple machine activities for kids.

Simple Machines Gears Unit - Hands on unit including book recommendations, free printable worksheets for kids, science experiments, and so much more for elementary kids. LOVE THIS UNIT!

This is week 3 of our Simple Machines Unit for elementary science. For more simple machines you'll want to take a peak at:

More Simple Machines for Kids

Simple Machines – Inclined Planes

Simple Machines –Wheels & Axel

Simple Machines – Gears

Simple Machines –Wedges & Screws

Simple Machines – Levers & Pulleys

I Spy Simple Machines Book

Simple Machines Mini Book

Simple Machines Game

Gears are Wheels

A gear is a wheel with teeth that engages another toothed mechanism in order to change the speed or direction of transmitted motion

Gear Experiments for Kids

To demonstrate the importance and use of gears we did a couple of fun, hands on experiments.

gears handson activities for kids

First we used My First Clock kit. The kit was a quick to assemble project that demonstrated gears and how clocks work. Kids put this entire clock together and then get to enjoy this clock them made.

This was a REALLY cool activity.

The kids really enjoyed the 7 hands on projects in our K'NEX Education - Intro To Simple Machines: Gears kit. These working machines really helped the kids understand various practical uses for gears.

We also learned that the bigger the difference between the different gear sizes the quicker the machine could go.

We also played with Gears! Gears! Gears!. Unlike the other gears projects we did, this one had not instructions to follow. The kids were able to create their own projects and figure out how to make it work.

At the end of our unit we were lucky enough to be able to take a little bit of a drive to the Museum of Science & Industry. The kids area had a wonderful area for kids to explore including various simple machines. The kids enjoyed the gear wall that if put together correctly, would make a hammer strike.