Effortless!

Four sixth graders pose with their fixed pulley.

Usually, a teacher wants students to put forth as much effort at possible. In Mr. Steve Lamp’s science class at Lakeside Middle School sixth graders were asked just the opposite! In a unit on pulleys, the students were asked to determine which pulley system could lift a load with the least amount of effort. This Investigation is part of a module on Simple Machines in their Foss Science kits.

In this unit, the students learned that effort meant the force needed to lift a load. They experimented with both fixed and moveable pulleys, then connected them to make compound pulleys. An example of a compound pulley was given with three ropes and a load of 90 pounds. To find the effort, the students divided the number of ropes by the load. One student explained, “The more ropes you have working together in the pulley system, the easier the effort. Three ropes pulling up means the effort is one third of the load.”

With this Investigation these sixth graders have learned the basics of a simple machine and physics. As they experimented with the different types of pulleys, they learned how people throughout time have used science to lighten their work load. The relation between force, effort, and load was applied, and the learning...effortless!