Appropriate Use of Technology - Barbie Bungee

For my lesson for Data Analysis and Probability for grades 6-8 following the NCTM standards I chose Barbie Bungee. I have to admit that I chose the lesson plan because my six-year-old daughter was reading the lesson titles along with me and she loves Barbies. Then I reviewed the lesson plan and found that it was a great way to teach data collection and prediction. In this lesson, students model a bungee jump using a Barbie® doll and rubber bands. The distance to which the doll will fall is directly proportional to the number of rubber bands, so this context is used to examine linear functions. Fun! It gets students' interest by asking, "Do you think the length of the cord and the size of the person matters when bungee jumping? Would it be smart to lie about your height or weight?" I think the kids would love it! In this lesson technology can be used to create a graph. To create a graph of the data, you could manually do it or you may wish to have students use the Illuminations Line of Best Fit activity, which is also included in the lesson plan. This lesson plan reinforces/teaches the meaning of the slope and y intercept within the context of this problem.


To design the lesson plan, the teacher used the following steps:
1) Learning Objectives
2) Materials
3) Instructional Plan
4) Questions for Students
5) Assessment Options
6) Extensions
7) Teacher Reflections
8) Standards

This lesson plan is great for the kinesthetic learner in that this includes hands on activities. This gets the students directly involved in data collection. It involves critical thinking in that students predict how many rubber bands are needed for Barbie to safely jump from a given distance. It gives the students a chance to use math to solve a real world problem. The students use problem solving to determine the number of rubber bands needed for Barbie to jump safely and to determine the minimum height from which Barbie should jump. If I were to change anything in this lesson plan, I’d use Ken instead of Barbie. ☺ I honestly thought that it was a very through lesson plan that included assessment of students and reflection questions. It even included extensions to the lesson plan. I couldn't think of anything additional to add.


http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?id=L646

NCTM Standards and Expectations
Algebra 6-8
1. Use graphs to analyze the nature of changes in quantities in linear relationships.
2. Explore relationships between symbolic expressions and graphs of lines, paying particular attention to the meaning of intercept and slope.
Algebra 9-12
1. Use symbolic algebra to represent and explain mathematical relationships.
2. Approximate and interpret rates of change from graphical and numerical data.
Data Analysis & Probability 6-8
1. Select, create, and use appropriate graphical representations of data, including histograms, box plots, and scatterplots.
2. Make conjectures about possible relationships between two characteristics of a sample on the basis of scatterplots of the data and approximate lines of fit.