MARYSVILLE – Sunnyside Elementary School third-graders learned May 29 how to make simple machines to make work easier.

Sam Chamberlain, a teacher with the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, showed them how to make levers do the work. He explained that common household items such as dusters, spatchulas, pliers and even bats and golf clubs are levers. Even our muscles and bones are levers.

Chamberlain is part of the Science on Wheels program. Students used to take field trips to the PSC, but after the gas crisis in the 1970s the center decided to start taking science to the students.

“We want to get the kids excited about science,” he said. “And we want to model science for teachers. It can be fun and hands on.”

The state funded Science on Wheels until 2008. Now, schools have to pay for it. The money for this trip came from Parent Teacher Student Association field trip money. Chamberlain’s efforts now include follow-up activities, such as writing lawmakers to encourage them to reinstall funding for the program, along with online lessons.

Chamberlain’s lesson on this day involved a lever, balancing point (fullcrum), a toy penguin and some washers. The students learned the variables on how to balance the lever using fewer washers. The students learned that where the penguin, washers and fullcrum were placed all played a role in balancing the lever.