Summary Students experiment with household materials that are wedges, screws, or both - all variations of inclined planes. Science content Physics: Simple and complex Machines (5) Lessons activity is in Simple machines Materials bottle, cork and corkscrew bottles with screw caps light bulb and fixture screws, screwdrivers and dense card to screw into potato peeler and potatoes nails, hammer and wood skewer and foam pieces scissors and paper pencil sharpener and pencils knife and potato Procedure Describe an inclined plane: driving or walking up a hill. Stairs in a house. Pushing an object up a ramp. You move for longer, but with less effort than going straight up. Two kinds of tools are inclined planes: a wedge and a screw. A wedge is a tool with an inclined plan on it, or with a slope on it, so rather than pushing on something head on, you push on a slope, which is easier. Pointy things are wedges. A screw is an inclined plane wrapped around a shaft. Students visit the stations of materials, try out the wedges and screws, and decide which one is and why. (Note: some are both e.g. screw with a pointed tip) Optional: give them worksheets to draw the materials and show where the inclined plane is for each (see attached). Attached documents inclined_planes_worksheet.pdf Grades taught Gr 4 Gr 5 Gr 6
