The Barbie Bungee iMovies are finally finished! Barbie Bungee was my favorite activity of all times. There is nothing more exciting then seeing seeing if your Barbie is going to come crashing to the ground. The students learned so much and we ALL had a blast!
I’m not an iMovie expert, but I learned much more about it by making this movie. The text moves way too fast – I wanted stationary text but it kept cutting it off. My students told me they would help me with that. They are only 12 years old, but much better at iMovie than I am! I love them.
I told them they could make an iMovie if they wanted to – totally optional. Three students made movies. I have put them all (and the movie I made) here. Enjoy!!
Zoe G, Ellie M, Trent A (iMovie created by Zoe G)
My iMovie
iMovie by Ellie M.
I Speak Math 
Great project! Middles schoolers learning lines of best fit?! I don’t know many who teach that, unless its some newfangled Common Core thing. I’m planning on this with my freshmen physics students.
Oh and the tricky one totally brushed the grass.
Yes, one class decided that today. It’s such a fun (and heated) discussion!
And we don’t actually calculate the line of best fit, we eyeball it, then enter the data on the computer to get the actual regression line. It lends itself more to linear equations. It has been great for kids to SEE what a y-intercept is and what slope can actually mean in real life. I have advanced kids so they can usually manage the crazy stuff I throw at them. 🙂
Very cool indeed!
Thanks!! 🙂
nice work. I am working on this right now and used your post as a guide. I like the idea of using software for the line of best fit and made a GeoGebra worksheet just for this activity. Since your site was so helpful, I tried to make one that also fits your design of the experiment (with 0,2 and 4 bands): http://www.geogebratube.org/material/show/id/26835 Let me know if it helps.
I love this idea! I am going to try it out with my advanced 7th graders. I have one question for you… how did you attach the rubber bands to the Barbie’s feet? Maybe it was answered in a different post and I haven’t found it yet. Thank you so much for sharing!
Oooh! So much fun. Isn’t it awesome how behavior issues always disappear when students are engaged in their math activities? I love that they started to realize how important the accuracy became. Thanks for sharing. Loved the video.
Yes! It was the week before Christmas Break and they were totally engaged. It was like a miracle or something! A Barbie miracle! Lol!
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Great lesson and nice artifacts! I love it when students argue about math!
My colleague Vic Roy and I initiated this in 1994 at a “problem solving day” for schools in our district. We were both applauded and reviled (the former by the students, the latter by some thin-skinned teachers). We didn’t have the sophistication of 19 years later with respect to modelling the results; however, we used it as an application activity. Students could not test their bungees (linked elastics, supplied by us) directly: instead,they were told Barbie’s mass and had to do their testing with masses equivalent to what they were told. Each team then had one and only one chance to use the “real” Barbie. Nice to see the activity is still kicking, and nicer to see it’s been made more mathematical.
Thanks so much to you and Vic for coming up with this fabulous activity!! I’m so glad it stayed alive. I’m honored that you feel I did a good job with it. It was the best math activity I’ve ever done! Thank you!!!
Great work with the students Julie. The idea is brilliant, the execution (pun not intended) successful and the results were a thrill to watch. You can hear that the student were pumped!
Keep up the great work.
Thanks. I think I loved it even more than they did! 🙂
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