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Sid's Amazing Invention

Grades: PreK-1
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  • Overview


    Using this resource group, students learn about a tool often used to lift heavy items, a lever. Sid believes that he has invented the ultimate solution to putting away his toys, later to learn that his invention is actually a simple machine called a lever. He discovers that levers are not only useful for launching toys, but can also help lift up really heavy things. The resource group includes eight video segments, including a live action segment, as well as an associated activity.

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    Sid's Amazing Invention- Part 1


    Sid introduces the topic of levers. He believes that he has invented a simple solution for putting toys away quickly, not realizing that his invention is a type of lever! Sid has created a lever to hoist his toys into their chest using a shovel and a block. At breakfast, Sid's parents explain that levers can be used in many different ways to help transport objects.

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    Sid's Amazing Invention- Part 2


    Sid interviews his friends and asks them how they would lift something really heavy. Sid finds that each of his classmates, Gabriela, Gerald, and May would use different methods to lift a heavy object! In the interview, Gabriela says that she would get something really strong to help, like an elephant, May says that she would get a group of friends together, and Gerald says that he would use his big muscles!

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    Sid's Amazing Invention- Part 3


    Join Sid and his classmates for Rug Time with Miss Susie as they discuss levers and how they make things easier to lift. To investigate with a real lever, the class moves over to the Super Fab Lab. Out of a block and a board, Miss Susie creates a sample lever! The class is challenged with figuring out the easiest way to lift a heavy box of blocks.

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    Sid's Amazing Invention- Live Action


    Students learn about levers by exploring how they can make lifting a heavy box easier. Students experiment with adjusting the fulcrum under the base of the lever to maximize its use.

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    Sid's Amazing Invention- Part 4


    Sid and his classmates reflect on their experience figuring out the easiest way to lift the heavy box. May explains that they first tried to work together to lift the box but found that using the lever was much easier. The group tells Miss Susie about their further investigation of levers, and how they found that when you move the fulcrum closer to the object you are trying to lift, it is even easier!

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    Sid's Amazing Invention- Part 5


    Laugh along with Sid and his classmates as they present 'Good Laughternoon'. The students get the chance to tell their best lever jokes! The students then move back inside for playtime and Sid pretends to be a salesman selling a special invention to help put things away, a lever. Sid promotes this as a tool to put anything away quickly and easily! This segment shows how students can use their creativity to turn what they learn in class into fun and games.

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    Sid's Amazing Invention- Part 6


    Learn about the power of the lever to get objects to high heights. In this song, a circus conductor explains how the lever is constructed like a seesaw and demonstrates its power by sending a clown to the top of a pyramid using the lever!

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    Sid's Amazing Invention- Part 7


    Sid leaves school after a day of learning all about levers. On the car ride home, Sid's Grandma tells him about the lever that she loved to use when she was little, the seesaw. On the ride home, Sid and his Grandma get a flat tire. To fix it, Sid's Dad uses a tire jack - which also ends up being a lever - to lift the car up to replace the tire. Sid realizes just how often you can use a lever to help lift and transport heavy items! Sid comes up with the idea to create the biggest lever in the world, that can help to lift even the heaviest things, like a whole house!

Explore how levers, a type of simple machine, work and understand how levers aid in lifting and transporting objects. Investigate how the position of the fulcrum on a lever affects the amount of work needed to lift an object.