Simple Machines

There are only six types of simple machines. Each can be used in many different ways.

The gear is sometimes considered a simple machine, but a gear is really just a wheel with teeth.

1. Inclined Plan
2. Wedge
3. Screw
4. Lever
5. Wheel and Axle
6. Pulley

Daily Use of Internet (2nd, 3rd & 4th grade appropriate)

We review a weather website at (www.wunderground.com), which gives us our local forecast, the times of the sunrise and sunset, the length of the day, and the times the moon rises and sets, along with the moon's phase.

We also learn the wind direction and speed and the maximum and minimum temperatures for the day. We figure out the temperature range, and we make weekly graphs using the some of the data we collect.

We also look at other web sites at (www.historychannel.com/thisday/), (http://www.yahooligans.com/docs/tdih/), and (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/),
which give interesting current events and historical information about the day. Certain students are chosen to quiz the class on what's in the news that day. All of these web sites are bookmarked on our home page, and the students have their Internet accounts set up to come up to this page.

Each class historian and meteorologist prints out their page, and we store them in a class book. The students can go back and look at the year's weather and history in their spare time."
Submitted by: Jennifer Harper SunMAC1@email-removedm, a third and fourth grade teacher at Cavendish Town Elementary School in Proctorsville, Vermont. This tip was published in the NEA's Weekly Tip Newsletter.

Lesson Plans & Resources for Technology Class

In trying to find my way through teaching Technology to K through 8th with

• NO curriculum (for the first half of the year) and
  
• computers that are quirky (to put it mildly) and
  
• no IT back-up except a parent with a power problem . . . .
  

I have sought out and found some nice resources:

The Teacher's Corner TECH
Discovery TECH lesson plan ideas and links
CyberSmart Lesson Plans - grades: K-8th
Teach-nology - includes applications lesson plans

abacus

Definition: A manual computing device consisting of a frame holding parallel rods strung with movable counters.
Context: This is an abacus. This counting machine was first used in China and the Middle East.

central processing unit

Definition: The part of a computer that interprets and executes instructions.
Context: The bits are sent to the computer�s brain, the CPU, where they are translated back into words and pictures and symbols on the screen.

e-mail

Definition: Messages sent and received electronically via telecommunications links.
Context: You can send an e-mail message from the U.S. to almost anywhere in the world in just seconds.

modem

Definition: A device that converts information from your computer into signals that can travel through telephone lines.
Context: A modem takes information from your computer and turns it into a signal that can travel through the telephone lines.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

Definition: The address of a Web page, which allows people to find the page on the Internet.
Context: A Web page address is called a URL; that is an acronym that stands for uniform resource locator.

scanner

Definition: A device that allows one to convert pictures into images on the computer.
Context: You can also use a scanner to turn pictures into images on the computer that you can put on your Web site.