Learning About Pulleys

For her first Science Fair, Katrina did a project on Basic Mechanics- specifically focusing on Pulleys. We wanted to make it fun, so Ken actually built a pulley system for her to demonstrate with and we thought it would be fun to share with you here. :)

I'll include instructions for how we made ours after I show you the poster she made:


We had her write everything herself (and I love the way it turned out). I love seeing her printing on the poster! I helped her a little bit with the diagram, but she labeled it and drew the person. :)

Now on to the pulley system!

If you want to create something similar, here's what you'll need:

- 2 planks of wood (same size)
- 4 thinner pieces of wood (all same length)
- Pulleys! (we used 7 in varying sizes- we got them at Home Depot)
- Rope (we found ours at the dollar store)
- Wooden Dowel for the handle (ours was a shovel handle that broke)
- Large Bottle of Water

Here's How We Made Ours:

Using some old planks of wood we had in our basement, Ken created a roof and a floor (nailed together with some smaller pieces of wood to make a frame). He attached the pulleys to another small piece of wood (attached to the bottom of the "roof") and to the handle of the water bottle with rope. Then he strung the rope through the pulleys and drilled a hole in the wooden dowel so that he could attach the rope to it, for a handle.  The other end of the rope is secured to the base (he just wrapped it around and tied it on).

We brought a second water bottle to the Science Fair so that kids could experience for themselves the difference between lifting a heavy weight on their own:

...and lifting it with the help of a pulley system!

This was a really fun project. I hope it gives you some inspiration!  There are all kinds of things you could build to help your kids to experience things in real life (going beyond just reading about them)!

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