GRAVETTE -- Fifth-graders at Gravette Upper Elementary School recently completed a study of simple machines and how they impact our daily lives. Dorothy Hadley, fifth-grade science and math teacher, explained to the students that simple machines include screws, levers, pulleys, wedges, inclined planes and the wheel and axle. These simple machines make our work easier, she told them, and many complex machines we use every day are made up of simple machines.
The students brought old machines to school and used tools to take them apart and locate the simple machines. Students were also given the assignment of completing a simple machines project at home. Parents could help, but only a little. Students could choose to make a simple machines poster or create a simple machines robot.
Posters had to list all six types of simple machines and have pictures of each type. Students could draw their pictures or use photos from old magazines and newspapers. The simple machines robots did not have to be automated but needed to have at least three of the simple machines incorporated into the design.
"The students did a great job on the posters," Hadley said, "and the robots were some of the best we have ever had."
Hadley reminds readers that Gravette Upper Elementary has a Facebook page, and students would love to have them "like" or "follow" their school. Teachers use this website to share pictures and information regarding events happening at the school, she explained.
General News on 03/11/2015