Initial Pulley Investigation

Week of September 22

When beginning the semester we recognized an interest in movement among the children. Specifically the children seemed to find an interest in manipulating objects with capabilities to move. We brought out simple machines for the children to explore and one of the machines which created the most fascination was the pulley. The children were interested in watching the up and down motion of the pulley and  recognizing how their hands moved along with the pulley.

I wanted to recreate this pulley on a larger scale so the children could better see the movements. This larger pulley created more of a gross motor effort. The children would pull the one end of the pulley with their hands and once their hands were as low as they could go, the children would resort to squatting in order to bring the string lower to the ground. They quickly noticed this cause and effect of pulling one side and the other side going up.

The children tested different theories about the pulley. Some would pull the one side down and watch as the other side lifted above another child’s head. They would then release the pulley until the other side was just above that child’s head. Instead of letting the other child reach the pulley, they would then turn back and bring the pulley back up to the ceiling. They recognized how pulling and releasing the string had differing effects.

I plan to extend this learning by changing the weight of one side of the pulley. I am interested to see how the pulley being unbalanced  affects the way in which the children manipulate it.