MEGA Machines

The world runs on machines - simple ones that use one movement to increase a person's "mechanical advantage" (eg. a lever) and more complex ones that combine several simple machines (eg. a can opener).  This class will take the six simple machines (lever, pulley, wheel and axle, wedge, screw, inclined plane) and use them in the creation of more complex, or compound, MEGA machines.  Children will build contraptions and inventions all year long that draw on these mechanical building blocks, following in the footsteps and beyond of famous inventors like Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin.