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Class twists science to learn Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Students from Steve Plotnick's Rogue River High School physics class watch Thursday as Barbie loses her head in a bungee-jumping experiment designed to teach students algebraic calculations. Cultural icons help with calculations By DAMIAN MANN ROGUE RIVER - Barbie might be the pretty one, but when it comes to bungee jumping, Ken doesn't lose his head. At least that was the outcome of a twisted science experiment at Rogue River High School Thursday. Six teams of students were each given a Barbie or Ken doll and then calculated how to throw it off the roof without mussing a hair on the doll's plastic head. They determined how much the bungee cord would stretch and how much weight was needed to bring Barbie within kissing distance of the ground. Most of the students miscalculated, and the dolls hit the pavement with a resounding thump, buckling their bodies in half and often slamming them back up under an overhang. It was not a good day for Barbie. After all was said and done, the winner was a bronze-chested Ken whose plastic, hairless head came within inches of the ground. Why use this much-beloved cultural icon in a science experiment? "Barbie is supposed to represent an ideal," explained physics teacher Steve Plotnick. "What better way to use an ideal than to get an ideal calculation." The only trouble was that most of these ideal creations crashed into the hard reality of the pavement, one even losing its head. Bits of Barbie littered the ground. Some students quickly raced in to draw chalk outlines to show where America's favorite plastic idol had fallen apart. None of the students seemed concerned that their doll could become a victim of science, even though most - including the boys - admitted to playing with them as children. "I didn't mutilate mine when I was a kid," said 18-year-old Rebecca Grinde. "I guess this is my opportunity." She confessed that if the head snapped off, "It would be exciting." Mandy Murray, 17, was part of the winning team, calculating precisely how much weight it would take to make Ken fall and just miss the ground. Murray explained with confidence before the contest began why Ken would likely be the winner. "He has no hair and he's streamlined." As Plotnick announced that Ken was the winner, Murray cried out, "He's a stud. He already knows he's a winner." Murray was also the student who contributed the Barbie and Ken dolls to science. "I had them stuffed in a box and shoved in the attic." Plotnick decided the prize he was going to offer the winning team was a prom "dream date" for each member. But Murray had already made plans to go with her "Ken" - teammate and boyfriend Colt Curtis, 17. Plotnick is known for his dramatic science experiments that sometimes involve blowing things up. Underlying the apparent frivolity of bungee-jumping Barbies, these students are learning sophisticated algebraic formulas. "I'm always so bad at these type of things," confessed one of the losers, 18-year-old Bobbi Wright. "Physics is not my forte." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.