Students band together for Barbie’s safety

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — When a person falls out of the sky toward the ground below in a bungee jump, various factors are taken into account to help provide for a thrill and to make the plunge as safe as possible. Eighth-graders at SeDoMoCha Middle School recently had the chance to try bungee jumping in math class, dropping Barbie dolls in the elementary stairwell after calculating how many rubber bands they thought would be needed to get Barbie as close to the tile floor as possible from two stories above.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    DOWN GOES EVENING GOWN BARBIE — SeDoMoCha Middle School eighth-graders applied a math lesson on proportions to bungee jumping, as they needed to calculate how many elastics would be needed to make a bungee cord to safely drop a Barbie doll from the top of a two-story flight of stairs to get as close to the floor below without making contact. Dropping evening gown Barbie is the group of, from left, Connor Belote, Matt Young and Breyer Manchester, as  teacher Ryan Nickerson looks on.

    For the fourth year in a row, grade 8 math teacher Ryan Nickerson has helped teach the concept of proportions through a Barbie bungee jump. Working in small groups, students conducted shorter test jumps in the classroom with their dolls falling from a table. The eighth-graders then needed to calculate the proper larger number of elastics tied together they feel would be needed for a close but safe bungee from a greater height.
    Each group had a different version of Barbie, including a singing doll with a voice box which gave the figure a greater weight than the others and provided another attribute to be taken into account. On Feb. 27 Nickerson told the students a previous class had singing Barbie bungee to within 15 centimeters of the ground, as the various groups had estimates ranging from 28 to 33 elastics needed for their jumps based on the accompanying proportion calculations.
    “We go through once, each group will be measured for your score,” Nickerson told his class before they headed over to the elementary side of the SeDoMoCha complex. “The second jump will be for fun, to see how close you can get.”

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    FIVE CENTIMETERS AWAY — The group of, from left, Brandon Chambers, Jon McGinley and Dan Little (pictured with their teacher Ryan Nickerson) came the closest to the ground without making contact during the Barbie bungee jump on Feb. 27. The three SeDoMoCha eighth-graders had a measurement of a mere five centimeters with singing Barbie.

    With the jumping group gathered at the top of the stairs, another few students positioned at the bottom to measure and the rest standing on the stairs to watch, evening gown Barbie was dropped. The 33 elastics making up the bungee cord got this Barbie to within 50 centimeters of ground level.
    Later came singing Barbie’s turn, as this group calculated a figure of 30 rubber bands would be needed for their jump. “This is the heaviest Barbie of the group, so she tends to use fewer elastics,” Nickerson said, a few minutes afterwards saying the smallest Barbie would conversely need the greatest number of rubber bands in its bungee cord.
    As Barbie sang to the students, she took the plunge and came close to making contact with the ground but came away from the jump unscathed. The measurement put singing Barbie within five centimeters of the floor, giving the group of Brandon Chambers, Dan Little and Jon McGinley the win for closest bungee jump.
    “We based it on a shorter distances,” Breyer Manchester said back in the classroom, explaining the test jumps helped the groups determine the proportions needed for the stairwell jump.
    “It’s in the low 30s and it depends on the size of Barbie,” Austin Bickmore added about the ideal number of elastics needed for a safe Barbie bungee jump.
    “You learn but with the concept you are having fun,” Manchester said. “It’s much better than watching (Nickerson) write on the board or doing a worksheet,” Matt Young added about the hands-on lesson.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    HERE COMES BARBIE — Measuring some of the bungee jumps of their classmates on Feb. 27 at SeDoMoCha is the group of, from left, Hailey Vanderwal, Kiara Prescott and Shelby Strout.