Michigan Science Benchmark Clarification, Instruction, and Assessment

Benchmark Clarification
Interactions between magnetic materials and non-magnetic materials form patterns. Magnets have two poles, called north (N) and south (S). Opposite poles attract (N-S) and like poles repel (N-N or S-S). Some materials are attracted to magnets and some materials are not. Magnetic forces operate through materials and over a distance.

Students will:

• Observe the effects of magnets
• Describe the effects of magnets using appropriate terms

Key Concepts (voc.)

• magnetic poles
• magnetic attraction and repulsion

Tools:

• magnets
• variety of magnetic and non-magnetic materials (K-2)
• magnetic compass (3-5)

Real-World Context

• common magnets
• using a magnetic compass to find direction

Instructional Example SCI.IV.3.E.3

Benchmark Question: How do magnetic objects interact with other magnetic or non-magnetic material_
Focus Question: How do magnets react with a variety of objects_

The teacher will provide students with magnets of different sizes and shapes, as well as a variety of objects, some magnetic and some non-magnetic. Each student will write predictions about how a magnet will react to each object.

Students in small groups will choose four objects and one magnet. They will take turns and test their predictions. Each student will record the results of his or her tests in the chart.

Each student will summarize the patterns of interaction using the information in the chart.

Constructing: SCI.I.1.E.1, SCI.I.1.E.2, SCI.I.1.E.5, SCI.I.1.E.6

Reflecting: SCI.II.1.E.1

Resources/References:

Webliography.
http://mtn.merit.edu/mcf/SCI.IV.3.E.3.html/

Borton, Paula. The Usbourne Book of Batteries & Magnets. HOW TO MAKE SERIES. Usbourne, 1995.

Murphy, Brian. Experiment with Magnetism & Electricity. Two-Can Publishers, 2000.

Nankivell, Sally. Science Experiments with Magnets. Watts, 2000.

Classroom Assessment Example SCI.IV.3.E.3

Using marked magnets, students will arrange magnets in different patterns. Each student will circle his or her predictions on the chart and then test each prediction. Each student will circle the result of each test on the chart.

Each student will write a paragraph describing the patterns created when two magnets react to each other.

(Give students rubric before activity.)

Scoring of Classroom Assessment Example SCI.IV.3.E.3

Benchmark Clarification
Simple machines enable people to do work with less effort. Students often are unaware of the simple machines they use every day.

Examples of simple machines:

• Inclined plane: wheelchair ramp, stairs, ladder
• Screw: vice, jar lid
• Lever: can opener, baseball bat, shovel, hammer
• Pulleys: flagpoles, blinds
• Wheels and axles: wall mounted pencil sharpener, door knob
• Wedges: door stop, pencil tip, knife

Students will:

• Identify and use inclined planes, screws, levers, pulleys, wheels and axles, and wedges to move objects
• Demonstrate a simple machine and explain in simple terms (easier, harder) how the amount of effort/force needed (more, less) has changed the work (easier/harder)

Key Concepts (voc.)

• inclined planes
• screws
• levers
• pulleys
• wheels and axles
• wedges
• force
• distance

Real-World Context

• block and tackles
• ramps
• screwdrivers and screws
• can openers
• see-saws

Instructional Example SCI.IV.3.E.1

Benchmark Question: How do simple machines change the effort needed to do work_
Focus Question: What are simple machines and how do they change the amount of effort
needed to do work_

Small groups of students will cut pictures of common objects used as simple machines out of magazines, sort them into groups, and glue them on a chart entitled “Simple Machines.” Students will participate in substantive conversations regarding how the amount of effort (force needed) to complete the work has changed. Each student will draw pictures of simple machines (inclined plane, screw, lever, pulley, wheel and axle, and wedge) found around the school and use technology to create a poster of the simple machine.

Extension: Students may research a scientist such as

Maria Goeppert Mayer (link to Biography),
Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906 – 1972) SECOND WOMAN TO RECEIVE NOBEL PRIZE FOR PHYSICS

Dr. Maria Goeppert-Mayer was born in Poland in 1906. Her father was a seventh generation university professor, and her mother had been a French and piano teacher. In 1910, they moved to Göttingen where her father was appointed professor of pediatrics at the Georgia Augusta University (commonly referred to as Göttingen), and founded a children’s clinic. For several years, life in Göttingen was rich and filled with intellectual stimulation. But, in 1914 with the onset of World War I, life changed and, at times, was quite harsh.

Maria’s excellence in school, especially in mathematics and languages – along with a never-ending curiosity – made her decide to attend college. But admission of women at universities was limited, and the entrance examinations were quite rigorous. So, after graduating from high school in 1921, Maria attended the Frauenstudium, a school which prepared girls for the university entrance examination. Although the academic program was three years long, the school went bankrupt two years later. Undaunted, Maria took the entrance examination anyway, passed, and was admitted to the university. She studied mathematics at Göttingen, attending to become a teacher.

Göttingen was one of the leading universities in Europe at the time and was staffed by many of the leading mathematicians and physicists of the day. Here, she was surrounded with, and nurtured by, many scientific giants. They often gathered at Göttingen to discuss their latest findings, and the science of physics was advancing rapidly. It was then that Max Born invited Goeppert to join his class. This was a turning point for Maria, who decided to concentrate her studies on physics so she could work with puzzles of nature, rather than with mathematics, the puzzles of man.

Shortly after Maria’s father died, Born expanded his role as her mentor, and became more of a father figure. His guidance and teaching in theoretical physics, in addition to her strong mathematics education, gave Maria Göeppert a solid foundation and the skills necessary to become one of the great quantum physicists of our time.

Because of the Depression, it was common practice in Europe for families to take in boarders, especially university towns. In 1929, Maria rented a room to Joseph Mayer, an American who had just received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California at Berkley, and had come to Europe to study with James Franck. Göeppert and Mayer soon became more than landlady and boarder. Upon receiving her doctorate in 1930, the two were married.

Dr. Mayer completed his work and then accepted an appointment with the chemistry department at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Unfortunately, the U.S. was the height of the Great Depression and jobs were scarce. Plus, the University, like most at that time, had strict rules against employing members of the same family. As a result, even though Dr. Göepert-Mayer was exceedingly well qualified, the best job she could find was an assistantship in the physics department. Even though underemployed, she was provided opportunities to continue her research and was later allowed to present lecture courses for graduate students.

Karl Herzfeld, a prominent theorist in kinetic theory and thermodynanmics, recognized Dr. Göeppert-Mayer’s expertise and they soon began writing scientific papers together. She also worked with, and formed close relationships with Gerhard Dicke, Francis Murnaghan and Aurel Winter of the mathematics department. Each of these experiences added to her enrichment as a scientist, as did the rapid development of quantum mechanics during that time. Dr. Göeppert-Mayer also worked closely with one of Herzfeld’s students, Alfred Sklar, who later became the Director of the Argonne National Laboratory.

The situation in Europe during the 1930’s grew worse each day because of the Nazi government in Germany. Thousands of Jews fled the country, realizing that if they stayed, they would be deported to concentration camps or killed. Because many of the leading scientists in Germany were Jewish, U.S. scientists were quite concerned that their colleagues from abroad would be enslaved or murdered. A group was formed to provide food and shelter for those who were able to escape. As treasurer, Dr. Herzfeld got Dr. Göeppert-Mayer quite involved, and she opened her home to a number of refugees.

During this time, she also focused her energy on methods of group theory, and matrix mechanics on pioneering work concerning the structure of organic compounds. While at Johns Hopkins, she spent the summers of 1931-1933 in Göettingen working and writing with Max Born. Just before leaving Johns Hopkins for Columbia University in New York City, Dr. Göeppert-Mayer and her husband attended a conference where it was first disclosed that the atom had been split.

Sadly, when first arriving at Columbia, Dr. Göepert-Mayer was given an office, but not a faculty appointment. Even so, she soon became close friends with a number of Columbia staff members, NObel Physics Prize and fled Germany because his wife was Jewish. The Fermi’s and Mayer’s moved to Leonia, New Jersey, so they could live nearby.

In 1942, Dr. Göeppert-Mayer was offered her first genuine position as a half-time faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y. She developed and presented a number of science and mathematics courses there, and continued her teaching throughout World War II.

In early December, 1941, Harold Urey began putting together a research group to work on developing the atomic bomb, the Manhattan Project. Dr. Göeppert-Mayer was offered a position to work with those scientists on what was, for security reasons, called the Substitute Alloy Materials project. Her top secret work included research on the thermodynamic properties of uranium hexafluoride.

Although she continued her part-time teaching at Sarah Lawrence, she also began participating in a research program called the Opacity Project. It focused on the properties of matter and radium at extremely high temperatures, necessary to develop thermonuclear weapons. After working for some while to design and build the first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico, she returned home to be with Dr. Mayer. Soon after, while on their only vacation in years, they received the news that the first atomic bomb had been exploded over Hiroshima, Japan.

Immediately following the end of the war, the couple moved to Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Mayer was appointed a full professor and given a position at the new Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago (later renamed the Enrico Fermi Institute). The Opacity Project also moved there, and was joined by a number of famous scientists. The university soon became known for its experts in nuclear physics, chemistry, astrophysics, cosmology, and geophysics.

Here, Dr. Göeppert-Mayer was given the opportunity to continue her work with the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University as an associate professor and senior physicist. The Metallurgical Labaoratory was soon replaced by the Argonne National Laboratory under the Atomic Energy Commission. During this time, Dr. Göeppert-Mayer was introduced to a cosmological model of the origin of the elements. She realized that, because some elements were more abundant than others, they must have a very stable nucleus. And, she found that the nuclei of these stable elements contained even numbers of either neutrons or protons.

Later, she realized that protons and neutrons could spin in their orbit around nuclei, and that there was a difference in the energy between them relative to their direction. This allowed them to be arranged in more different orbits than was earlier thought. In addition, when protons and neutrons were most tightly bound, they created stable elements and were in even numbers. At last, Dr. Göeppert-Mayer could clearly explain how the particles of the nucleus are arranged – “shells” within the nuclei – and the spinning orbit-coupling model of nuclei was born. Although another scientist had suggested such a possibility in 1933, his research was never completed because of the war.

In April 1950, the journal “Physical Review” carried an article explaining her discovery. Simultaneously, Otto Haxel, J. Hans D. Jensen, and Hans E. Suess, well-known German scientists, had also made the same discovery. Later, after meeting Jensen in 1950, the two collaborated in writing the Elementary Theory of Nuclear Shell Structure, published in 1955. Although Dr. Göeppert-Mayer was first to submit her documentation for publication, she and Jensen shared the 1963 Nobel Physics Prize.

In 1954, Dr. Göeppert-Mayer was finally offered a full professorship in physics at the University of California at San Diego, and Dr. Mayer, a professorship in chemistry. Only weeks after their arrival, Dr. Göeppert-Mayer suffered a stroke which left her partially paralyzed. Even so, she recovered enough to accept the Nobel Prize in 1963 and continue her teaching and research into the development of the shell model.

Although Dr. Göeppert-Mayer’s efforts to remain actively involved in research were valiant, her health problems began to quckly mount. After losing the hearing in one ear, she began to suffer heart problems and died in San Diego on February 20 1972.

Throughout her life, Dr. Göeppert-Mayer fought against the evils and effects of gender and religious discrimination and persecution. Her friends described her as a quiet, modest, thoughtful, and elegant person. Those in the field of physics refer to her as an enthusiastic scientific giant who brought to the world order and fundamental understanding of the nuclei.

Books

Born Max, and Mayer, Maria Göeppert, “Dynamische Gittertheiorie der Kristalle”, Handbuch der Physik, 1935.

Mayer, Joseph, and Mayer, Maria Göeppert, Statistical Mechanics. UNKNOWN PUBLISHER, 1940.

Mayer, Maria Göeppert, and J. Hans D. Jensen, Elementary Theory of Nuclear Shell Structure. UNKNOWN PUBLISHER, 1955.

References
Dash, Joan, A Life of One’s Own. New York, Harper and Row, 1973.

Sachs, Robert G., “Maria Göeppert Mayer – Two-Fold Pioneer”, Physics Today, February, 1982, pp. 46-51.

Shiels, Barbara, “Maria Göeppert Mayer”, in Women and the Nobel Prize. Dillon Press, Inc. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1985.

Robert McNair (link to Biography),
Ronald Erwin McNair (1950 – 1986) LASER PHYSICIST AND NASA ASTRONAUT

Ronald Erwin NcNair was born the son of a teacher and an auto body repairman, on October 21, 1950, in Lake City, South Carolina. Even though both parents were employed, life was very difficult for McNair and his two brothers, who grew up in an atmosphere of racial prejudice. Throughout much of his childhood, he and his brothers picked cotton, cucumbers, and cropped tobacco for $4 a day to help support the family.

McNair began reading at the age of three, and became interested in science when he was young. After the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik, McNair’s classmates remember that science, Sputnik, and thoughts of space travel began to dominate his thinking. He excelled in both academics and sports such as football, track, and basketball, and graduated from high school as valedictorian of his class in 1967. Nevertheless, he remained the quiet, modest follow his friends nicknames “Gismo”.

Since state colleges in South Carolina were not fully integrated, McNair attended North Carolina A&T State University. Needing to challenge his intellect, he majored in physics and was graduated with highest honors in 1972. Although he wanted to continue his education at a top school in physics, he was apprehensive about attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). But, he couldn’t hide from the challenge, and soon began his doctoral studies there.

While at MIT, McNair worked on developing some of the first chemical and high-pressure lasers, and worked with some of the top authorities in the field. Even so, he faced many challenges at MIT, ranging from “unspoken” prejudice to losing two years worth of dissertation research data on the computer. Inspired by early memories of his mother driving 600 miles a week to earn her master’s degree, McNair was not about to let any hardship stand in his way. He persisted and quietly went about recreating his doctoral research. Within three months, he had come up with even better material, completed his research experiments, and finished his dissertation. NcNair received his Ph.D. in 1976.

Next, he worked at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. While there, he received a flier from NASA which said they were looking for shuttle astronauts. Dr. McNair returned his application, confident that he would at least fulfill his dream of space travel. In 1978, at the age of 28, he was accepted into the astronaut program as one of 35 applicants from among 10,000 who applies. Shortly after being accepted, Dr. McNair and Cheryl, his wife, were in an automobile accident. Fortunately, when the other car crashed into them, he only suffered several broken ribs. Determined to regain his health, Dr. McNair recovered from the injury and reported to NASA for astronaut training—only the second black in history to do so.

His first experience in space travel aboard the space shuttle Columbia in early January of 1986 was uneventful, and all went well. He even had time during the mission to record solo renditions of the songs, “What the World Needs Now is Love” and “Reach Out and Touch” on his saxophone. However, his second voyage into space ended in tragedy. Seventy-four seconds after lift-off from Kennedy Space Center, the space shuttle Challenger exploded above the shore of Florida. All crew members were lost.

Dr. McNair earned many honors and received a number of awards during his short life of 35 years. He was a Presidential Scholar, Ford Foundation Fellow, and Omega Psi Scholar of the Year. He was awarded three honorary doctorates, made a member of the National Society of Black Professional Engineers, and joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ronald Erwin McNair was known as a man who completed things he started. A sixth-degree black belt in karate, accomplished saxophonist, scholar, scientist, and a loving family-man, he lived by the philosophy “Be your best” -- leaving a legacy of excellence for us all to follow.

References
Black Collegian, December/January, 1980/81. pp. 31, 134-138.

Black Enterprise, Vol. 16, No. 9, April, 1986, p. 25.

Cheers, Michael D., “Requiem for a Hero”, Ebony, Vol. XLI, No. 7, pp. 82-94.

Ebony, May 1986, pp. 14-17.

Jet, March 9, 1978, pp. 22-26.

Jet, Vol. 70, No. 2, March 31, pp. 14

Samons, Vivian O. Blacks in Science & Medicine. Hemisphere Publishing Corp., NY, 1990.

Who’s Who Among Black Americans, 1985, p. 578.

Albert Einstein (link to Biography),
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) CONCEPTUALIZED THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY
Dr. Albert Einstein was born the son of an electrical engineer on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany. His scientific curiosity began by age five as he pondered the invisible force which directed the needle of a compass given to him by his father. But, he showed little academic promise at the Catholic state school he was forced to attend, and was unable to speak very well at the age of nine. His teachers said he was mentally slow, unsociable, and “adrift forever in his foolish dreams.” Unaffected by these criticisms, Einstein took refuge in a sea of books and learned to play the violin. These solitary pursuits brought him great joy.

One day, Einstein’s teacher brought to class a large nail she said was from the crucifixion of Jesus. As the only Jewish boy, all eyes turned to him as if he and his religious ancestors were directly responsible. Einstein did not understand this senseless hatred, and he ran from the room, returning to his books for comfort. This incident stayed with him throughout his lifelong fight against prejudice.

At the age of 12, Einstein’s life changed dramatically when he discovered Euclidean geometry. By age 16, he had also become proficient in differential and integral calculus.

In the 1880’s, Einstein’s family moved to Switzerland. Even so, he continued to be unhappy in school and was soon expelled because his rebellious attitude hurt the morale of fellow classmates. He then tried to enter the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Even though Albert’s knowledge of mathematics was superior to most, his knowledge in other areas was greatly lacking and he failed his first attempt at taking the university entrance examination. Later, in 1896, he was admitted to the Institute. At first he wanted to become a mathematics teacher, but soon realized that his greatest interests lay in experimental and theoretical physics.

Einstein passed his university examinations in 1900, and was given a teaching certificate – but not a teaching job as was usual at that time. Anti-Semitism was growing, and as a Jew, he was denied any job with status attached to it. After several years of unsuccessfully searching for a teaching position, he accepted a job as a technical expert, third-class, in a patent office.

Bored, Einstein began experimenting with complicated mathematical formulas. With a pencil in hand, he built a laboratory in his mind. Those calculations were basis of his doctoral dissertation which he completed at age 26. They also were his first steps in formulating a theory which shook the foundations of science.

Einstein had long searched for a general principal which would explain a paradox that occurred to him when he was 16 – if someone runs alongside a train at the same speed, as the train, it appears to be at rest. But, if it were possible to run alongside a ray of light, the ray of light – an oscillating electromagnetic wave – would not appear to be at rest. Therefore, everything in the universe was actually in motion. Speed and direction are relative, and only measured relative to other objects. Einstein then concluded that space and time were also relative. The only thing that was not relative was the speed of light.

In short, he stated that, no matter how fast an observer is traveling, he or she must always observe the velocity of “c” as the speed of light. He also hypothesized that, if an observer at rest and an observer moving at a constant velocity perform the same experiment, they must get the same results. These two considerations were the basis of Einstein’s “Special Theory of Relativity.” He went on to prove that this theory predicted energy “E” and mass “m” are interconvertible – thus “E=mc 2. This formula gave a remarkable new picture of the universe.

The Special Theory of Relativity challenged long-held views of time and space. Always before, scientists had believed that mass, length, and time was absolute and unvarying. Einstein demonstrated that they were dependent on the relative motion between the observer and what is being observed. In 1907, he proved his entire quantum hypothesis by showing that it accounted for the low-temperature behavior of specific heat in solids.

In 1909, he was made an associate professor at the University of Zurich, and a full professor two years later. A year-and-a-half after that, he became a full professor at the Federal Institute of Technology. Einstein was rapidly advancing. He had become so well known within the scientific community that, in 1913, Max Planck and Walter Nernest asked him to accept a research professorship at the University of Berlin. To further entice Einstein, Planck also offered him full membership in the Prussian Academy of Science. In 1914, Einstein accepted and remarked, “The Germans are gambling on me as they would on a prize hen. I do not really know myself whether I shall ever lay another egg.”

By 1915, Einstein had refined his General Theory of Relativity which described the structure of space. He maintained that the universe contained a continuum of space and time in the form of a complicated four-dimensional curve. Unlike Newton, Einstein proved that gravity was created by a localized bending of space caused by the presence of large masses such as planets and stars. In addition, he demonstrated that the shortest distance between two points in space was not a straight line, but a curved line – light is modified by the objects it encounters as it travels from one point to the next.

In 1919, the light of a solar eclipse was independently measured at two observatories. Einstein predicted that light rays which passed near the sun would, because of the intense gravitational waves. He also suggested that the universe is static and uniformly filled with a finite amount of matter; and although finite, it has no beginning or end point. The proof of his predictions, published in 1915, caused a great fury in the scientific world.

In 1920, Einstein was appointed to an honorary lifelong professorship at the University of Leiden. A year later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his famous 1905 equation for the photelectric effect.

During 1921-22, Anti-Semitic attacks on Einstein were renewed. Even Nobel Prize-winning physicists Philipp Leonard and Johannes Stark were known to criticize Einstein’s theory of relativity as “Jewish physics.” This Anti-Semitic prejudice increased rapidly with the rise of Nazi Germany. It was during this period that Einstein took a public stand against Anti-Semitism. For two years he and Chiam Weizmann, the future first president of Israel, traveled worldwide to gain support for establishing Palestine as a Jewish homeland.

In 1924, S. N. Bose, with Einstein’s help, developed Bose-Einstein statistics. This soon led to Einstein’s famous wuantum theory of an ideal gas. Around this same time, he was offered an honorary vice presidency of the Mark Twain Society. When he found that they also had offered a similar position to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, however, he flatly refused. Shortly thereafter, he found his name high on a list of people who were to be assassinated by the Nazis, and moved to Holland. But, he found that formerly tolerant nation also to be rife with Anti-Semitism and a fear of Nazi Germany. In 1932, Einstein moved to the United States.

Adolf Hitler then told Einstein that he would overlook the fact that he was Jewish, and asked him to return to Germany. When Einstein refused, Hitler reversed himself, insisted that no Jew could have formulated the Theory of Relativity immediately revoked his German citizenship, and place a price of 20,000 marks on his head. At the same time, Einstein resigned from the Prussian Academy of Science because of their Anti-Semitism, and was expelled from the Bavarian Academy of Science.

A year later he was appointed a life member of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University in New Jersey, and actively continued his work there until 1939. At that time, American scientists were becoming concerned that the Relativity Theory (which showed that mass could be converted directly to energy) could be used by German scientists to build a new “super weapon.” With the threat of a world war looming, Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt, a suggesting that the U.S. develop a counter weapon in hopes it could be used to prevent war. The counter weapon’s development was begun, but rather than used to deter a war, it was used to end one. In 9145, despite Einstein’s appeals, an atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan.

Einstein spent his last years in semi-retirement at Princeton and continued to work and teach until 1945, when he retired and was made a professor emeritus. Between that time and his death in 1955, Einstein became a strong advocate of a world government as the only practical way to achieve peace.

Dr. Albert Einstein’s legacy is unending. He gave science an entirely new understanding of the universe. He fought against religious prejudice and war. And the lived a full life – a life spent in the service of others.

References
Born, Max, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. (Translated) 1922, (rev. ed 1962).

Clark, Ronald W., Einstein: The Life and Times. 1947.

Encyclopedia of World Biography. McGraw Hill, Vol. 3, 1973.

Frank, Philipp, Einstein: His Life and Times. (Translated by George Rosen), 1947.

Feldman, Anthony, and Ford, Peter, Scientists and Inventors., Facts on File Publications, 1979.

Infeld, Leopold, Albert Einstein: His Work and Its Influence on Our World, 1950.

Jammer, Max, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics, 1966.

Seeling, Carl, Albert Einstein: A Documentary Biography. (Translated by Mervyn Savil), 1956.

Schlipp, P.A., Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. (2 nd ed) 1951.

or any other scientist who is relevant to force and motion. Then, students can assume the identity of the scientist they researched and share with the class who they are, what they’ve done for science, and make a correlation between their work and simple machines.

Constructing: SCI.I.1.E.1, SCI.I.1.E.3, SCI.I.1.E.6

Reflecting: SCI.II.1.E.4, SCI.II.1.E.5

Resources/References:

Webliography.
http://mtn.merit.edu/mcf/SCI.IV.3.E.4.html/

Graham, Ian. Cars, Bikes, Trains & Other Land Machines. HOW THINGS WORK SERIES. Kingfisher, 1993.

Nankivell, Sally. Science Experiments with Simple Machines. Watts, 1966.

Classroom Assessment Example SCI.IV.3.E.4

The teacher will present pictures of simple machines or objects that are used as simple machines.
For example:

• Inclined plane: slide, wheelchair ramp
• Screw: pencil sharpener, twist-on cap
• Lever: baseball bat, broom
• Wedge: knife, scissors
• Wheel and axel: door knob, AV cart, or computer cart
• Pulley: flagpoles, blinds

Each student will prepare and complete a chart that includes the following information:

• Identification of the type of simple machine
• Explanation of the purpose of the simple machine
• Description of how the simple machine makes work easier

(Give students rubric before activity.)

Scoring of Classroom Assessment Example SCI.IV.3.E.4