Exploring levers and sliders
Take a look at your arm, it is type of ‘lever’. Can you see how it moves at the elbow and at the shoulder. We call the place it bends or moves the ‘pivot’.
You can find levers and pivots all around you if you look closely. There are lots of levers inside all sorts of vehicles: such as trucks, cars, trains, coaches, bicycles and buses! The levers help to make parts of the engine and the vehicle move.
- Cut a length of card
- Cut that card in half
- Make a small hole at one end of each of the half pieces of card
- Place one half on top of the second half, lining up the holes
- Push a paper fastener (split pin) through the two holes
- You now should have a model of a small lever that looks like an arm with an elbow.
Start a collection of levers, pivots and sliders in your classroom. If objects are too big then take a photograph for your collection. You could start with looking at a weighing scale, a see-saw and your leg!
