Students see if applying math lessons can end up being a snap

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — Eighth-graders at SeDoMoCha Middle School recently had the opportunity to apply lessons learned in the classroom to a hands-on exercise, using knowledge gained for a Barbie doll bungee jump.

Photos courtesy of Ryan Nickerson

    PLAYING WITH DOLLS — Eighth-graders in Ryan Nickerson’s math classes at SeDoMoCha Middle School used a lesson on proportions to determine how many and what types of rubber bands would be needed to safely drop a Barbie doll from the top of a stairwell to get as close to the floor below as possible without making contact.

    “It was really fun,” student Hannah Fishburn said. “We used proportions to calculate how many elastics we would need to get as close to the bottom of the stairs as possible.”

    “We would run multiple tests on each amount of elastics for the proportion of the final bungee jump,” Andrew Miles added about what he and his peers did in grade 8 math teacher Ryan Nickerson’s classes.

    The objective of the lesson, which Nickerson has used for the last several years, is to utilize proportions to determine how many and what types of rubber bands would be needed for a safe bungee jump. After several test drops the students headed over to the two-story set of stairs on the elementary side of the school building to bungee their Barbies and try to get as close to the floor below as possible without the plastic making contact with tile.

    “We were in groups with a minimum of three and up to five,” Miles said. Fishburn explained that the students needed to work together for the entire process, such as determining what rubber bands would make up the bungee cord.

    STRETCHING THEIR MATH SKILLS — Students, from left, Max Santagata, Riley Poisson and Billy Brock get ready to bungee their Barbie, testing the proportions they calculated from shorter test jumps.

    “The thicker elastics had less pull than the smaller elastics,” Miles said about one factor used in his group’s jump. Using this knowledge the groups figured out how many of the rubber bands would be needed for the much shorter tests jumps in the classroom. Then, knowing the height of the stairwell and the approximate weight of the dolls, calculated the number of elastics that would be needed to be tied together for a safe jump down the stairs.

    Fishburn explained her group split up at the stairwell with several members making the drop from the top and the others wearing hard hats and safely positioned below to measure how close the Barbies came to the floor.

    BUNGEE CASUALTY — Some of the dolls dropped did not survive their bungee jumps.

    She said her group’s Barbie did make the bungee safely, but the doll was not so lucky for a previous attempt. “The class before broke Barbie’s head off and taped it back on,” Fishburn said, as the calculations for the jump would have been slightly off.

    “It was really close to touching the floor,” Miles said about his group’s drop, which had the correct use of proportions. “It was fun to do a hands-on test using stuff we have learned throughout the year,” he added, as Fishburn said she also enjoyed the project applying math class lessons to a real-world simulation.

    HARD HATS REQUIRED — Quine Chase measures how close Barbie gets to the step.