Ancient Civilizations
Pharaoh's Obelisk: Lever Lift
A Nova Project adapted by Elizabeth Johnson, Nicholas County High School, Carlisle, KY.
Objective:
To discover how levers work by raising a brick with shish kebab skewers.
Materials for each group:
- copies of the Lever Lift student handout
- brick
- 2 bamboo shish kebab skewers or small dowels cut to length or longer
- small pebbles about the size of a quarter of half dollar (small or flat stones work best.
Takes about a coffee-can full for each group. Gravel doesn't work.)
- coffee can to hold pebbles.
- newspapers
- paper and drawing paper
- pencil and crayons
Procedure:
- Review classes of levers with students. (See Activity Answer) Remind students of the
levers they saw in the videos. Set up work area on newspapers. Go over rules for
erecting the brick. Require the scribe to use words and drawings to describe the
team's work.
- Stop the activity after a given amount of time. Measure the brick's height off the
ground for each team.
- Discuss with students what classes of levers they used and how they used them.
- Have students present their work, explaining what did and did not work. Presentations
might include drawings of the lever lift from different angles.
Pharaoh's Obelisk: Lever Lift
NOVA ACTIVITY
A Great Ruler has selected your team to erect a brick obelisk. How will your team
raise it? Because a brick is tiny compared to a real obelisk, you must work under the
following conditions to begin to experience the difficulties the ancients faced:
- You may not touch the brick with your hands
- You are limited to two skewers (or dowels) for your levers
- You must use the small pebbles for support stones
- A team member or members must act as a scribe to draw and record what class of levers you
used, what difficulties you had, and how you overcame them.
Use the materials you are given to raise the brick as far as you can. Your teacher will
measure to determine which team raised its brick the highest.