Make a Castle Mechanism or Simple Machine

• Provides additional Maker inspiration
• Follows the Maker Design Process
• Includes a Maker brief and a generic Student Worksheet
• Is designed to help you guide your students through the Maker design process

Allow the students to interpret the Maker brief for themselves, or read it aloud to set the scene.

Make a Castle Mechanism or Simple Machine

Have you ever seen a castle? Did it use any mechanisms? What did the mechanisms do? What simple machines were in the castle? Which jobs did they make easier?

Make a mechanism or simple machine for a castle.

As a part of your preparation you might find some inspirational images, or illustrations to support your students in defining a problem from the Maker brief.

As students look at the Maker brief and any other supporting materials that you have collected, facilitate a discussion to steer them toward a problem. Once they have decided upon how they want to solve the problem, ensure that they record it on their worksheet.

Students should initially work independently, spending three minutes to generate as many ideas as they can to solve the problem. They can use the bricks from the set during the brainstorming process, or sketch out their ideas.
Students can now take turns sharing their ideas within their groups. Once all of the ideas have been shared, each group should select the best idea(s) to make. Be prepared to help facilitate this process to ensure that the students choose something that is possible to make.
Encourage diversity, not all student groups have to make the same thing.
Encourage the students to share their learning process. Provide them with the opportunity to share their thinking, ideas, and reflections using the documentation tool(s) they have available.

Possible Solution
Note: To encourage maximum creativity, you may choose not to share this image with students.

Students must record up to three design criteria (three things their design must achieve) so that they can refer to it when they review and revise their solution.

Students make one of the ideas using the LEGO^® Simple Machines Set and other materials as needed.
Reinforce that students do not have to come up with the whole solution from the start. For example, they can investigate different parts of a solution or a specific function of an element separately before working on the overall solution as such.
During the making process, remind students to test and analyze their idea as they go, making improvements where necessary. This iterative process should happen several times as a natural part of the improvement of the solution. If you want students to submit their documentation at the end of the lesson, ensure that they record their design journey during the making stage using sketches and photos of their models.

Students test and evaluate their designs against the design criteria they recorded before they started making their solution.
Allow the students to select the tool(s) they find appropriate for capturing and sharing their reflections. Encourage them to use text, videos, images, sketchnotes, or another creative medium.

Allow time for each student or student group to present what they have made to the class. A good way to do this is to set out a table large enough to display all of the models. If time is short, two groups can present to each other.

Students use the Maker self-assessment rubric to evaluate their design work. Each rubric includes four levels of achievement. The intention is to help students reflect on what they have done well and what they could have done better. Each rubric can be linked to engineering related learning goals from the NGSS.

Ensure that you leave enough time at the end of the lesson to break the models down and sort them back into the LEGO boxes. You will need approximately 10 minutes to do this.