Project 3: Maker Skills – Class 6 Vocational Education Chapter 3 Notes & NCERT PDF

About the Project

Project 3: Maker Skills belongs to Part 2: Work with Machines and Materials. Machines make our lives easy and materials are all around us. In this project you will:

Simple machines help us do work that is beyond our capacity — difficult or simply impossible by hand. A cart with wheels and axle moves heavy objects with less force; pulleys lift heavy loads.

Even a big bus, a bicycle, a toy, a doorknob, or a door and window are made of simple machines working together.

Indian connection: ancient architecture

Huge stone temples in ancient India were built with skilled labour, simple tools such as chisels and hammers, and clever engineering. Heavy stones were lifted and placed using inclined planes, levers and pulleys — simple machines we still use today.

What You Will Learn

Materials & Tools

For toys from trash: cardboard, plastic pipe, empty plastic bottles, plastic spoon, drinking straws, bottle caps, paper, ice cream sticks, thread, rubber bands, glue, glue gun, tape, clothes clips, all pins, balloon, colour box, chopsticks.

Tools: scissors, metre scale, cutter.

For the bicycle: at least 5–6 bicycles; oil/grease; spanner set, wrenches, chain brush, tyre levers and air pump. Visit a bicycle shop or invite a mechanic.

Step-by-Step Activities

Activity 1: Simple machines around us (Table 3.1)

List things that help you work — e.g. a knife (cutting fruits and vegetables) and a vegetable peeler (removing peels).

Activity 2: Using levers to make toys

A lever is a bar or handle that moves around a fixed point called the hinge/fulcrum.

Examples: a spoon used to open a tin lid, a seesaw.

Activity 3: Using a propeller

A propeller is a wheel with blades; as it turns, the blades push through water or air.

Propeller boat: glue ice cream sticks into a boat shape, make a paddle wheel from slit bottle caps and sticks, pass a straw through, tie a rubber band from the boat's tip to the straw, wind it up and place it in water.

Activity 4: Using a wheel and axle

A wheel and axle is made of wheels held together by a rod so they move together. Car wheels are an example.

Activity 5: More than one simple machine — the windmill

A windmill generates energy from wind. The cardboard model combines a propeller (the fan) and a wheel and axle (straw through cardboard circles).

Activity 6: Simple machines in a bicycle

A bicycle uses wheels, wheels and axles, levers and pulleys. All its parts work together to turn the rider's effort into motion.

Common problems and fixes:

Activity 7: Visit a bicycle repair shop

Ask the mechanic: What should be checked before riding? How is the saddle adjusted? How is a puncture repaired? How often should the chain be oiled? How can squeaking brakes be fixed? How are wheels aligned?

Activity 8: Organise a toy exhibition

Define the purpose, choose a theme (eco-friendly, historical, futuristic toys), plan the space and layout, invite parents and community, label each toy with the maker's name, have volunteers, collect feedback, and document with photos.

Safety First

Key Terms

Think and Answer (hints)

Common Mistakes