Through a series of activities, students discover that the concept of mechanical advantage describes reality fairly well. They act as engineers creating a design for a ramp at a construction site by measuring four different inclined planes and calculating the ideal mechanical advantage versus the actual mechanical advantage of each. Then, they use their analysis to make recommendations for the construction site.

Concepts

engineering, mechanical advantage, stem, inclined planes

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Additional Tags

integrated teaching and learning program and laboratory, teachengineering, inclined plane, simple machine, mechanical advantage of machines

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Classroom Considerations

• Knovation Readability Score: 4 (1 low difficulty, 5 high difficulty)