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Vocabulary
 

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Reading/Language Arts
Building Background Vocabulary

Objective:
Students will use context clues to develop scientific vocabulary and access and/or build information about simple machines.

Materials:
Overhead Transparency
Student Worksheet
Overhead Projector

Question:
When reading, what do you do when you come across unfamiliar words?  How do you figure out their meaning?

Procedure:

• Tell students to take out Project Journals to record vocabulary definitions.

• Use transparency to model context clues and develop background information about simple machines.
• Write the following vocabulary on the chalkboard and/or overhead transparency

Scientific Vocabulary

        simple machines
        complex machines
        effort
        force
        lever
        screw
        inclined plane
        wheel & axle
        pulley

• Have students read each of the following paragraphs (see transparency & answer key below).  Using context clues and a list of vocabulary words, students will correctly fill in the missing vocabulary words and write definitions in Project Journal.

• Homework Assignment - Students will record examples of simple machines in their Project Journals and bring to class at lease one tool that does the following
• turns as it works
• cuts things
• help you do work faster
• screws things in
• opens things up

• Write an acrostic poem for a simple machine or for the complex machine that student has designed.
• Research how Ancient Egyptians built pyramids.  They may have used inclined planes, in the form of spirals slopes, to push enormous blocks of stone up to the tops.  Some of the tallest pyramids were about 146m (480ft) high.
• Write a report about how simple machines influenced history and how they might influence the future.
• Read How Things Work by David Macaulay to find out how simple machines work

        Vocabulary & Background Information Transparency

    Hector tried unsuccessfully to open a bottle of root beer with his bare hands.  In science, he learned that simple machines are devices that make physical work easier to do.  He knew that he could use a tool, such as a bottle opener to help him.  A bottle opener is an an example of a ______ _______.

    The bottle opener by itself would be of no use, unless Hector used some effort to push up on the handle.  The force needed to operate a simple machine is called effort.  He also remembered from his science class that work is the scientific term for when a force makes an object move.  A _____ is any push or pull on an object.  Forces can make things move faster or slower, stop, and change direction.  What was the object that Hector was trying to move?  The scientific term for the bottle cap is called the ____.  Load is the force that a simple machine overcomes.

    Finally, Hector was successful at removing the bottle cap.  After a long drink of  ice cold root beer, Hector jumped on his bicycle and hurried off to the playground.  As he peddled, he thought about how simple machines are often used together to make more complex machines, like his bicycle.  When two or more tools work together, they are called _______ ________.

    Once Hector got to the park, he looked around and to see if he could find other examples of simple machines.  He remembered that levers, screws, wheel and axles, pulleys and inclined planes are all the different types of simple machines.  He saw his cousins Victoria and Ana playing on a seesaw.  He waved to his cousins and thought about how a seesaw is an example of a lever.  A _____ is a rod that tilts about a pivot to produce a useful movement.

    Hector climbed up the spiral staircase to the slide.  He thought about how the staircase worked like a screw because it was easier than climbing straight up.  As he slid down the slide, he thought about how the stairs and slide were both examples inclined planes.  An ________ _____ is just a slope, like a ramp or staircase.

    Across the street from the park, Hector saw some men using a pulley to lift up a huge piano.  _______ help lift heavy loads.  On the other side of the street a woman was roller blading.  He thought about how the wheels on her roller boot turn around axles to move the boot in a straight line. A _____ ___ ____ is a simple machine made up of two connected wheels of different sizes that turn about the same point.

    As soon as Hector got home, he wrote down all the example of simples machines that he discovered at the playground.  Can you identify all the different types of simple machines?


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ANSWER KEY

    Hector tried unsuccessfully to open a bottle of root beer with his bare hands.  In science, he learned that simple machines are devices that make physical work easier to do.  He knew that he could use a tool, such as a bottle opener to help him.  A bottle opener is an an example of a simple machine.

   The bottle opener by itself would be of no use, unless Hector used some effort to push up on the handle.  The force needed to operate a simple machine is called effort.  He also remembered from his science class that work is the scientific term for when a force makes an object move.  A force is any push or pull on an object.  Forces can make things move faster or slower, stop, and change direction.  What was the object that Hector was trying to move?  The scientific term for the bottle cap is called the load.  Load is the force that a simple machine overcomes.

    Finally, Hector was successful at removing the bottle cap.  After a long drink of  ice cold root beer, Hector jumped on his bicycle and hurried off to the playground.  As he peddled, he thought about how simple machines are often used together to make more complex machines, like his bicycle.  When two or more tools work together, they are called compound machines.

    Once Hector got to the park, he looked around and tried to see if he could find examples of simple machines.  He remembered that levers, screws, wheel and axles, pulleys and inclined planes are all the different types of simple machines.  He saw his cousins Victoria and Ana playing on a seesaw.  He waved to his cousins and thought about how a seesaw is an example of a lever.  A lever is a rod that tilts about a pivot to produce a useful movement.

    Hector climbed up the spiral staircase to the slide.  He thought about how the staircase worked like a screw because it was easier than climbing straight up.  As he slid down the slide, he thought about how the stairs and slide were both examples inclined planes.  An inclined plane is just a slope, like a ramp or staircase.

    Across the street from the park, Hector saw some men using a pulley to lift up a huge piano.  Pulleys help lift heavy loads.  On the other side of the street a woman was roller blading.  He thought about how the wheels on her roller boot turn around axles to move the boot in a straight line. A wheel and axle is a simple machine made up of two connected wheels of different sizes that turn about the same point.
 

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