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This week in the East Somerville Community School, we did an introduction to simple machines by building lego cars (no motors.) We started by introducing the concept of a force--talked about gravity, wheels rolling down ramps. 

We felt that our kids really did not have a firm grasp on how the Lego pieces fit together, so instead of just letting them design and go, we did a class-wide tutorial that ended up with a basic car (2 axels, 4 wheels, beams and plates).  We stood at the front of the class and held up, named, and talked about the pieces and how they could go together, and had the class do what we did at their desks.  This worked extremely well---the whole class was excited and enthusiastic.  We think that a few of the kids who'd had a "too cool for school" attitude before really had just been struggling with the building, so decided not to participate.  Now that everyone has a nice understanding of the pieces, it will be much easier for them to build and be successful.

At the end of the period, the kids had a few minutes to roll their cars down the ramp and make modifications.  They really enjoyed this too--we ended up with some monster trucks and limosenes that were pretty cool :)