Simple Machines with K-nex Lab

We finished our Apologia Botany book a few weeks ago.  We could have just "closed the book" on science, but then we would have missed out on a lot of fun!  We launched into a unit on Simple Machines.  We read books on each of the 6 categories--1 a day.  Then the girls found images of that category and added them to wall chart.

 We did fun activities like use the see-saw that Papa made to demonstrate levers, fulcrum, load and effort.  Then the girls busted out the K-nex to build a simple machine to demonstrate!

The girls absolutely loved building with K-Nex.  This came as no surprise because all 3 girls are Lego Builders during every free moment of time!  K-nex really helped us demonstrate how each simple machine worked.  SO. MUCH. FUN.

Lauren was invited to attend a K-Nex Lab with our homeschool group.  They built a tow truck the first session and completed a few experiments with the tow truck.

 During the second lab, the groups built incline planes.  Then they calculated how the incline (which they lowered each time) affected the speed of the ball rolling down.  Lots of math involved this week!

 Lyndsey had never studied simple machines, so this was a great introduction for her.  Lauren had studied simple machines when she was at Eastwood, so the labs enhanced and furthered her learning on simple machines.  I love it when unit studies come together this easy!!!