Students in Renay Rigney’s Fourth Grade Quest classes recently presented their projects from a unit on Simple Machines. Taught in conjunction with the K’NEX Education curriculum, this unit allowed students to build K’NEX models of simple machines that highlighted mechanical principles and related them to the real world. The students shared their finished products along with snapshots from a PUE Simple Machines Scavenger Hunt. The display featured pictures of common simple machines that the students located throughout the school campus.
The highlight of the day was the display of a 4 ft. tall motorized machine called the Big Ball Factory. During the unit, all 42 students worked together to build this complex design made up of various simple machines. They also sponsored a contest in which the entire fourth grade attempted to guess the exact number of K’NEX pieces used to build the contraption. The two overall winners took home a giant Hershey bar!
