South Bay Students Put Simple Machines To The Test

Photo courtesy of West Babylon School District

Third graders at South Bay Elementary School in the West Babylon School District are studying simple machines as part of their science curriculum. The classes recently engaged in a hands-on STEM lesson to test their knowledge of the machines. In Ms. DeLapi’s class, the third graders learned about force and motion and created their own levers using a ruler. The students stacked objects on different side to see how much force it would take for the lever to move up or down. In Ms. Roselli’s class, the students created ramps and tested how friction would affect the distance their toy cars traveled. They first measured the car’s distance on the plain ramp, then retested it using sandpaper and a cotton towel.