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The mechanical transmission of motion, which is observable in gears' turning direction (TD) and turning speed (TS) can be understood as part of the core concept "force and motion". Previous studies have suggested that most children before the age of nine have naïve concepts of gears' TD and TS. However, these studies relied on children's explanation data and might have therefore underestimated young children's potential. Moreover, these studies did not examine whether preschoolers can overcome their naïve concepts through teaching. Recently, educators have proposed guided play as an educational approach that combines children's play with teacher guidance in a purposefully designed environment. We conducted two subsequent studies. In Study 1, we investigated the children's (naïve) concepts of gears' TD and TS with a cross-sectional approach using a nonverbal test procedure. This study comprised 248 children aged 5-10 years and 73 adults. The results showed that the proportion of children with adequate concepts increased with age. More specifically, 7-to 8-year-olds differed significantly from 5-to 6year-olds, indicating a developmental shift around this age. However, naïve concepts of TS were more persistent with age than naïve concepts of TD. Altogether, the results indicated the potential to foster 5-to 6-year-olds' concepts of both TD and TS in an intervention. Thus, in Study 2, we

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Attention to core concepts in science and engineering in early education has grown recently, and understanding levers as force amplifiers can be recognized as one of these. Previous studies focused on two‐sided levers and do not provide sufficient information about children's knowledge of levers as force amplifiers, nor about their learning and its support from an education perspective. It is important to consider load distance and force distance separately, as may be done in one‐sided levers, to understand children's knowledge of levers as “simple machines” thoroughly. Moreover, children's zone of proximal development and the possibilities to foster their knowledge should be explored to understand important features of teaching. We thus directed two studies with 6‐ to 7‐year‐old children. In study 1, we conducted a paper‐and‐pencil test in the context of wheelbarrows (N = 370; age M = 6.62). We investigated whether it is possible to empirically separate the features load, load distance, and force distance as well as to determine their level of difficulty. Our study showed that children's concepts of the three aspects load, load distance, and force distance are fragmented, with children finding it continuously more difficult to judge load, load distance, and force distance correctly. In study 2, we developed a 20‐min intervention with a controlled 2 × 2 pre‐post follow‐up design for exploring the zone of proximal development of 304 6‐ to 7‐year‐old children in the domain of one‐sided levers as force amplifiers, focusing on force distance and load distance. We implemented a structured learning environment that encouraged the children to manipulate wheelbarrows and supported them with pictures and/or verbal prompts. 6‐ to 7‐year‐old children had a higher learning gain when they were exposed to scaffolds that combined pictures and verbal prompts in the posttest as well as in the follow‐up test four weeks later compared to the control group.