Students will investigate how a lever works by building a low fidelity lever out of cardboard. Students should work in pairs. This lesson will form a basis of understanding of the mechanics that will be studied further with the robot arm in lesson 2.3.5.

What is a lever?

Students will brainstorm answers to this question. Then, the teacher will lead a class discussion on what a lever is. A lever is a system that has a fulcrum and a beam. The beam moves around the fulcrum. A lever system allows a small force to be used to pick up something large.

Teacher Note: It is not imperative that students understand the differences between the classes of levers.

View Image: How levers work

View Slides: 2.3.2. Lo-Fi Lever Activity Slides

Students will investigate how a lever works by building a low fidelity pneumatic lever out of cardboard. All instructions are included in the 2.3.2. Lo-Fi Lever Activity Slides.

• Students will work in pairs to cut out and assemble the lever.
• Make sure the lever is labeled with all student names.
• Levers will be kept in the classroom as we will use them for an investigation at the end of the week.
• This lesson will form a basis of understanding of the mechanics that will be studied further with the robot arm in lesson 2.3.5.

Class Discussion

The teacher will put up a venn diagram on the board that compares the arm and the lever systems. Students will brainstorm characteristics of each system and if these characteristics are the same across both systems (or not).

Teacher Note: The bicep-humerus muscle-bone system is like a Class 3 lever system.

View Image: Elbow Lever