SCIENCE

YEAR 7 MEDIEVAL MACHINES TASK

Students in Year 7 Science have been learning about simple machines (levers, wheel and axle, pulleys, etc.) and how they reduce the effort (force) required to perform a simple task. They’ve been researching examples of large ‘simple machines’ in use before the wide spread application of steam engines or the internal combustion engine. In medieval times society was very dependent on what were often very large ‘simple machines’ scaled up in size to generate large forces. Water wheels and windmills, medieval weapons such as trebuchets (which threw large stones or dead cows over castle walls), moat crossing bridges, castle wall ram and towers are just some examples that were based on the design of ‘simple machines’. 

Applying this knowledge, they were then given the task of designing and constructing their own machine that incorporated two or more simple machines and had a moving part at least 10cm in length. Here are some examples of machines constructed by our students.

Cherie Marks

Science Teacher