The article deals with the solution to the problem of the low level of machine science knowledge of pre-service teachers of labor education and technology. It has been found out that it is based on a contradiction between the real content of mechanical training of students and the content of technological education of schoolchildren. The goal of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of students' knowledge of mechanical engineering, based on the study of the technology of transformation of mechanical energy of rotational movement. The methods of analysis and synthesis of achievements of machine science and scientific achievements of technological education have been used. It has been found that in the work of researchers of mechanical science, as well as researchers of technological education of schoolchildren, there are enough guidelines for a well-founded choice of the subject of study. It is described that it should meet a number of different level requirements, for example to contribute to the formation of the technical outlook of schoolchildren; correspond to the content of technological education of schoolchildren; have a polytechnic character; simultaneously belong to different types of working machines. Technical knowledge about it must be integrated with knowledge of mathematics and physics. It must be used in educational projects of schoolchildren being a model of implementation of natural and scientific knowledge in practice, and suitable for technical construction of schoolchildren. The machine drive as a subject of the study meets all the specified requirements. It has been revealed that the subject of study for the formation of students' general idea about machines should provide a large amount of knowledge about the types of working machines and at the same time a moderate content. It has been established that such contradictory requirements are met by the drive of the machine as a subject of study. It is described that the concept of drive has the property of fractality as far as it enables a free transition from the study of the drive of any mechanism to the study of the drive of any working machines. It is described that the condition for choosing the content of educational material for the formation of students' general idea about machines is the use of the mental operation of abstraction and the corresponding transition from the level of description of the morphology and functions of technical objects to the level of energy conversion technology. It has been substantiated that the didactic value of the basic technical phenomena of the machine drive is the transmission of mechanical motion to a distance, the change of the kinematic parameters of the mechanical motion and the change of the power parameters of the mechanical motion. There has been revealed the importance of the results of this study for the disclosure of approaches to the use of the project method, as well as the use of technical construction for the visual presentation of the basic technical phenomena