A lever and a pulley are simple machines that help us move heavy things more easily. A lever is a stiff bar that rests on a turning point like a seesaw, and when you push down on one end, the other end lifts up. A pulley is a wheel with a rope around it, and when you pull the rope down, it lifts an object up, like raising a flag. Both levers and pulleys help us use less effort to do work. We played around looking at how gears work.