
Looking for a unique lesson and activity for your upper elementary or middle school science or STEM class? Your students will love the Archimedes’ Water Pump Lesson.
In this STEM Engineering resource, students will learn about the history of Archimedes’ Water Pump, and they will create their own working water pump in this STEM challenge.
Your science class will learn about how screws are really an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder. They will have to think about how a screw works to lift things like water.


This Archimedes’ Water Pump unit contains a variety of activities!
Archimedes’ Screw Water Pump Includes:
- Reading passage on Archimedes’ Water Pump
- Reading Response
- STEM Activity directions and Lab Pages
- Crossword Puzzle for vocabulary
- Page on Screws and Inclined Planes (simple machines)
- CER
- Answer Keys

Other middle school science teachers LOVE this resource!
Check out the dozens of perfect reviews on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Students found the resource engaging and they learned a lot in the process. Great way to hook students while teaching fundamentals. A great resource to build collaborative skills, problem-solving, and reflection.
Laura P. 12/31/22

This went nicely with our physical science and also STEM. Students were really intrigued with getting the water pump to work. Great activity.
Lance E. 10/22/22

This is a standards-based unit, helping you cover NGSS MS-ETS1-1 and MS-ETS1-3.
NGSSMS-ETS1-1: Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
NGSSMS-ETS1-3: Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.

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