The Gear Train: Which Way Does the Next Gear Turn?
Sim Lesson
Students use the The Gear Train simulation to place gears that mesh with a spinning driver gear and observe the direction each gear turns. Lesson Purpose Students are exploring how a gear train works as they design one. Watching meshed gears turn opposite ways, and how adding a gear flips the direction, builds the pattern they need to make an output gear turn a chosen way.
On a bike or inside a clock, gears turn one another. When one gear turns, the gear it touches turns too. When two gears are touching and one turns, which way does the other one turn? In this lesson, you will use the The Gear Train simulation to connect gears to a spinning driver gear and watch which way each one turns.
Topics and standards: Science, Physics, Simulation, Motion, Forces & Motion, Engineering & Design, Grades 3-5, Forces, Engineering, 3-5-ETS1-2, 3-5-ETS1-3, 4-ETS1-1, 3-5-ETS1-1, 3.2.4.G