Grade 8 Science Builds Simple Machines

The Grade 8 science class has been working on simple machines, learning about how force advantage can be gained and at what cost. In this class, students built a pully system to lift a weight against gravity. Students experienced firsthand the trade-off between force and distance and the confounding nature of friction. At the end of the class, students sat on top of an inverted picnic table and were pulled across the quad by a single student using a pully system that multiplied their force eight times!