Machine Design Gallery
Take a virtual walk through the 8th Grade Machine Design Gallery
After learning about the six types of simple machines and how they make it easier to do tasks students designed, built, and demonstrated a machine they created to solve a problem and that incorporates at least two simple machines.
Original Criteria:
It must include at least two simple machines in its design.
It must be able to move a 50 gram (about 2 oz) rock a horizontal distance of at least 50 cm (about 1 ½ feet).
It must be able to move the same rock (or optional item) a vertical distance of at least 30 cm meter (about 1 foot).
SavannahSM.MOVIt’s a catapult made up of one lever arm. With a wheel that’s a lever to pull the arm back conted with a string. And then you let go and it goes forward and the paper goes out.
Savannah
AbbyESM.movThis machine consists of a pulley and lever system. I used a spool of trimming wire to act as my pulley system. The wire was attached to a wire basket in four spots for stability. I used clamps as levers to help secure the wire between the basket and the spool. I used pennies for weight.
Abby E.
My design consists of a pulley, lever, and wheel and axle. Once the pulley (cord) is pulled, the lever (keyboard) allows the wheel and axle (roll of twine) to roll off. The hole inside of the roll of twine contains the pennies.
Kerigan
To make my simple machine I built a car out of legos. In the middle there is a place to hold all of the pennies and on the back is a door piece to hold my phone charger so it would go upwards with a pulley. To make it go forward I put the car of top of an incline plane.
Cole
When u pull on the red string (which isn’t supposed to be anything, it’s just supposed to move the simple machine) the simple machine’s wheels move with the inclined plane. I used marshmallows, toothpicks, red string/ribbon, tape, and cardboard. The toothpicks stock into the marshmallows makings wheel and axle. The cardboard is supposed to be the inclined plane (it isn’t very vertical because the quarters would fall off).
Jaiden
I made an inclined plane and lever out of cardboard, styrofoam, rulers on the bottom to keep them stiff. I put the 20 pennies in a bag then taped it up so it would roll down my inclined plane.
Ryan
GraceSimpleMachine.MOVThe two simple machines I did was a wheel and axle and a incline plane. For the wheel and axle I put together a couple of legos and little Lego wheels to form a car. For the rock to stay on the car I put a rubber band around it to secure it. For the inclined plane I got a big piece of cardboard and some books. I put the cardboard against my desk using tape to secure it. At the bottom I put the books under the cardboard so that the car doesn’t have a steep slope. I also got a little cutting mat and taped it on the end of the cardboard so that the car has a nice landing to the ground. The car starts at the top and goes down the incline plane safely.
Grace
RyanSM.movI created a compound machine with 2 inclined planes. the first inclined plane is a cardboard latter at an angle that the doll climbs up. the second inclined plane is a slide that the doll will slide down!
Sadie
You turn the pencil so the string starts to unwind which is a wheel and axle then the ball drops and goes down the ramp then it rolls across the blocks until it stops.
- Claire
I pulled the pennies up with the pulley and then moved them with the wheel and axle cart.
Sarah
SarahSM.MOVKydenSM.MOVMy machine works by holding down the bottom and pulling back the spoon and launching the rock. materials include; plastic spoon, hot glue, hot glue gun, top of a bottle, something to cut the top of the bottle, rock.
Kyden
ConnorSM.MOVThis is my machine made of two wheel and axles. The wheels are made of bottle caps with tape around them, and the axles are colored pencils. The base is cardboard. To move vertically, I made a pulley to lift the rock. I had to put another rock on the back to outweigh the one on the front.
Connor
I used 2 of my binders and a wooden dowel wrapped string around it then used a box and a paper clip and attached string to it.
Lexi
My simple machine is a pulley with a spool through the wheel. My pulley moves the rock then you pull down on the string the rock goes up because the string is wrapped around the 2 pulleys. You place a rock on the top of the ramp to use the ramp.
Elie
IMG_0229.MOVThe machine I built is a way to get a treat to our pet bird. The materials I used are a toy truck, a fishing reel, a box, a bird treat and a large paper clip. The simple machines used were a pulley, and two wheels and axles. To get this to work I attached the fishing line to the treat. Next I put the treat in a box in the bed of the toy truck. The fishing line was attached to the bird treat and strung through the large paper clip/pulley that was attached to the bird cage. I reeled in the fishing line which went through the large paper clip/pulley at the top of the cage and down to the treat that was in the toy truck. The truck was pulled forward until it reached the bottom of the cage. Then the treat popped out of the box and was lifted up into the cage for the bird to eventually enjoy.
Joe J.
Video.mp4My simple machine thing was to get Rocky IV "There and Back". It was made of a saltine crackers box, wooden blocks, a little plastic cart, string, a pen, a butter knife, a 63g rock A.K.A. Rocky IV, a Crazy Straw, and a green wooden spool. The way it worked was the little plastic cart held the rock, so then the butter knife (lever) hit the pen (fulcrum), and then the cart went down the saltine crackers box (inclined plane) with Rocky IV and went roughly 2 feet. After that, I tied the string (rope for the pulley) around Rocky IV that was in the little plastic cart (with it's wheels and axles) and put it over the green wooden spool (pulley) that was on the Crazy Straw, and had a little epic fail, but on the second try I successfully got Rocky IV up to the correct height.
Joseph
When you pull the blue string the small cardboard piece will move forward. Then when you drop something on or hit the end of the ruler it will launch the rock a foot up.
Kaitlyn
EllaSM.MOVSo, I taped a sticky note pad to a pencil then balanced the pencil on a tube of hand lotion, then I set a tube of Carmax chapstick on top of the sticky pad then pressed on the other end of the pencil flipping the Chapstick onto the incline plane a.k.a. a whiteboard.
Ella
I used old toys in my basement, an juice box straw and some wheels. I have it mixed with a lever, and a wheel and axle. You put the objects on the lever and pull it where you want it to go with the wheel and axle .
Tyler
TylerSM.mp4MatthewSM.MOVThis simple machine consists of a lego car that uses a wheel and axle. This LEGO car includes 15 pennies for extra weight. This car is attached to a string which is attached to a light cord which creates a pulley system. The car is placed on an inclined plane and once pushed off it activates the pulley system and turns off the light.
Matthew
My bag of pennies and tape rolls down the inclined plane. Then there is a bottle of tennis balls resting on the door handle. There is string connected from the bottle to the bag. The string is going over a bar, acting as a pulley. So, when you turn the door knob the tennis ball bottle falls and pulls the bag into the air .
Adrian
The two types of simple machines I used were wheels and axles (the gears) and a pulley. When you turn the big gear slowly the smaller gears turn faster and rotate the pulley, which pull the yellow block up and to the left towards it.
Lauren
The simple machines I used were wheels and axles made out of kabob sticks and bottle caps, and the inclined plane I used was an old book. The cart is made out of a styrofoam cup that holds the pennies so they don't fall out while traveling down the inclined plane.
Jack
There is a wheel and a incline plane. It works by wheel rolling down the ramp and moving anything in front of it and what it's made of is a plastic lid and well i don't know to call the round part.
Link
I made my simple machine out of legos with a car and 10 dimes for the wheel and axle. There is also a ramp as the inclined plane.
Eva
It’s a double wheel and axle with an inclined plane. The double wheel and axle would travel 1 foot on the regular ground. Go up on to the inclined plane (1 foot vertically up). Then the double wheel axle would travel another 1/2 ft (not shown in picture). Also the rock is tucked away in the picture in the corner so it’s a little difficult to see. The rock weighs 2 3/8 oz.
Ellen
To construct my simple machine I built a compact car out of LEGO bricks. I put a trunk on the back that can hold the pennies. It can drive up and up and down an inclined plane. It can also turn
Antonio
My machine is very simple you pull the string up the board then you let go and the bottle holding the rock will fall rolling down the inclined plane .
Isac
It works by the cheaters on the chopsticks holding them so they’re easier to use, I pick up the nickels with said chopsticks, I then place said nickels onto the footlong cardboard ramp I duct taped to a 1.5 ft. piece of cardboard, i let go if the nickels, and they roll down the ramp off the other cardboard.
Josey
I placed a molding tool under pliers and placed a polymer key chain on top of the pliers. once the pliers are tipped from the handle, it’ll launch the key chain down the board, or the inclined plane.
Libby