Eighth-grade students at Kingsford Middle School recently studied the math needed to calculate a successful bungee jump. Cord length is very important — too short and the jumper doesn’t get much of a thrill, too long and ouch. In this lesson, the students set up the bungee jump using a Barbie doll and rubber bands. This activity had the students collecting data on smaller jumps within the classroom. This data was put into a scatter plot, with a best-fitting line drawn through the plot. The students then had to calculate a function that related the number of rubber bands to the distance Barbie fell. Using this function, the students had to extrapolate to find how many rubber bands were needed to give Barbie the most thrilling bungee jump from the top rail of the KMS stairwell, which was 204 inches to floor. Clockwise from left, students Gavin Trevillian, Lily Villringer, Jacob Crockford and Libby Vross calculate a function using data they collected, while Barbie waits in the background for her next big jump.