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Lesson

Made to Move (Grades 3-5)

Students use simple machines to examine the relationships between force and motion, complete a science journal, and participate in group activities to demonstrate the use of simple machines.

Grades
3 – 5
Estimated Time
2 hours
Updated
January 24, 2023

Background

Lesson Activities

Recommended Companion Resources

Credits

Author

Tonja Cargill and Pamela Emery | California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom

Acknowledgements

This lesson was funded in 1996 by the California Beef Council and the California Farm Bureau Federation. To meet the needs of California educators, Simple and Complex Machines Used in Agriculture was revised to support the Curriculum Content Standards for California Public Schools and updated to include recent agricultural innovations. Funding from the Wells Fargo Foundation made this revision possible.

Illustrators: Karin Bakotich, Pat Houk, Sherri Hughes, Regina Johnson

Layout and Design: Nina Danner

Standards

National Content Area Standards

  • Social Studies – Economics
    • Economics Standard 1 (Grades 3-5): Scarcity
      • Objective (Grades 3-5): Identify what they gain and what they give up when they make choices.
  • Social Studies – History
    • World History Era 7 Standard 5A (Grade 5): Connections between major developments in science and technology and the growth of industrial economy and society.
      • Objective 3: Analyze how new machines, fertilizers, transport systems, commercialization, and other developments affected agricultural production in various parts of the world.
  • Science
    • 3-PS2: Forces and Interactions
      • 3-PS2-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
      • 3-PS2-2: Make observations and/or measurements of an object's motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.