Simple Machines Jeopardy

Levers, pulleys, ramps, and screws: a simple machines review for grades four through six. Copy the board free; the class buzzes in from phones.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

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Levers

$200
A seesaw is a lever, and the point it balances and turns on is called this.
What is the fulcrum?
$400
The object a lever moves or lifts is called this.
What is the load?
$600
The push or pull you put on a lever to move the load is called this.
What is the effort?
$800
A wheelbarrow is this class of lever, with the load between the fulcrum and the effort.
What is a second-class lever?
$1,000
A fishing rod, with the effort between the fulcrum and the load, is this class of lever.
What is a third-class lever?

Pulleys

$200
A pulley is a wheel with this wrapped around it or running along its groove.
What is a rope?
$400
This type of pulley, like the one at the top of a flagpole, stays in place and changes the direction of your pull.
What is a fixed pulley?
$600
This type of pulley moves along with the load and cuts the effort needed about in half.
What is a movable pulley?
$800
Pulleys make lifting easier, but you must pull the rope through a greater amount of this.
What is distance?
$1,000
A set of fixed and movable pulleys working together, used on ships and cranes, is known by this three-word name.
What is a block and tackle?

Wheel and Axle

$200
Turning this round handle to open a door is using a wheel and axle.
What is a doorknob?
$400
The driver holds and turns this round part of a car, a wheel and axle that makes turning easier.
What is the steering wheel?
$600
This spinning playground ride with a center pole is a giant wheel and axle.
What is a merry-go-round?
$800
A screwdriver works as a wheel and axle, and this thick part you grip acts as the wheel.
What is the handle?
$1,000
These wheels with teeth that fit together pass turning motion from one axle to another, as inside a clock.
What are gears?

Inclined Planes

$200
Kids climb a ladder and then ride down this smooth, sloping inclined plane on the playground.
What is a slide?
$400
The steepness of an inclined plane is called this, also used to describe a hill.
What is slope?
$600
A longer, gentler ramp lets you use less of this push or pull to move something up.
What is force?
$800
Roads that zigzag back and forth up this kind of landform are inclined planes.
What is a mountain?
$1,000
Many historians think workers in ancient Egypt dragged stone blocks up ramps to build these.
What are the pyramids?

Wedges

$200
This tool for chopping wood has a wedge-shaped metal head.
What is an axe?
$400
This kitchen tool uses a thin wedge-shaped blade to slice food.
What is a knife?
$600
This pointed metal fastener is a wedge that gets hammered into wood.
What is a nail?
$800
A wedge pushed under a door to keep it from closing is called this.
What is a doorstop?
$1,000
Your sharp front teeth, which work like wedges when you bite into an apple, are called these.
What are incisors?

Screws

$200
Twisting the lid on or off this glass food container uses a screw.
What is a jar?
$400
The ridges that spiral around a screw are called these.
What are threads?
$600
This winding set of steps that circles around a center pole is a screw.
What is a spiral staircase?
$800
This ancient Greek inventor is credited with a screw that lifts water uphill.
Who is Archimedes?
$1,000
The distance from one thread of a screw to the next is called this.
What is the pitch?

Final Jeopardy — Ramp It Up

A wheelchair ramp is an example of this simple machine, which makes lifting easier by spreading the work over a longer distance.

What is an inclined plane?

How to run this board

Each of the six simple machines gets its own column here: levers, pulleys, wheels and axles, inclined planes, wedges, and screws. Clues move from spotting the machine in a familiar object, like a seesaw, a doorknob, or a zipper, to explaining how it trades force for distance to make work easier.

Set out a few real examples before you start, such as a pair of scissors, a screw, a doorstop, and a toy car, and let a team hold one up as their answer. Students remember the physical object long after the vocabulary word.

The lever clues are a good place to introduce fulcrum, effort, and load; if the class is shaky on those words, draw a seesaw on the board and label it after the first lever clue.

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