Established by the Louisiana State Legislature in 1992, the Quality Science and Mathematics (QSM) Grant Program awards grants up to $2,000 to Louisiana PK-12 public school teachers every year. Qualifying applicants demonstrate how grant materials would enhance the quality of instruction for traditional students enrolled in mathematics, science, or STEM classes. Although competitive, more than 100 teachers across Louisiana are granted over $150,000 every year. LeeAnn Sepulvado is a Bossier Parish QSM awardee whose Barbie Bungee Jump proposal leaped right into the hearts of the judges this year.

Sepulvado kickstarted her teaching career in 2011 after graduating from Northwestern State University of Louisiana with a bachelors in secondary math education. Although her career began in Sabine Parish, Sepulvado moved to North Carolina shortly after, teaching in the state for a few years before returning to Louisiana's Bossier Parish. For Sepulvado and Airline High School, AP Stats was a relatively new subject. The school's students were not piqued enough to sign up, and she had only taught the subject for two years prior. Sepulvado’s goal was to “create an environment that students want to be a part of,” regardless of what it took. Every year, each teacher in Bossier Parish is allotted $100 a year to buy all the supplies necessary to teach their subject matter. “As helpful as that is, we all know it just wasn’t enough.” The textbooks were outdated and the students were not engaging with the lessons as much as she had hoped.

Sepulvado knew she could lead the charge to a more exciting educational experience for her AP Stats students. She scoured the world wide web for a new strategy that would help motivate them and stumbled upon Math Medic’s EFFL (experience first, formulate later) style of learning. The website had different activities and lesson plans that she could use in her classroom. She even recruited some of her Algebra 2 students to take AP Stats, refined lesson plans to cater to  her students needs, and transformed AP Stats into a class students were motivated to take.

The final cherry on top was discovering the QSM Grant program. Sepulvado had learned of the program in her early years as a student teacher. Granted, she had applied before, but never had a solid plan for her proposal, although this year was different. After combing through an abundance of lesson plans on the Math Medic site, Sepulvado found one that incorporated barbies and knew her students would love it. “Once I knew what lessons I wanted to try to incorporate the hands-on stuff for, my first thought was I can get QSM for this if they don’t think I am crazy for wanting barbies.” Sepulvado mentioned that the QSM proposal had become a bit more detailed from years past but was still relatively simple to submit. Once Sepulvado had articulated her thoughts to match the QSM standards, it was a straightforward process, although she admits it is not a proposal to start the day before its due. Not long after her proposal was awarded, the deliveries began coming in. Although the items on her list took longer to arrive than she expected, her students simultaneously experienced the excitement she did every time she opened a new package. “Setting ‘the experiment’ all up for my students was a breeze… we had a blast with the barbies.”

With some tweaks, Sepulvado hopes that her linear regression lessons will keep improving every year and that students will better relate to the topic at hand alongside the materials she received from the grant. “I would most definitely apply for another QSM Grant!” Sepulvado gushes, “This is my third time doing it, and in terms of work required… this is the best one.” She continues to state that the proposal wasn’t too difficult to complete, and with it she was able to receive all the material she requested for her experiment. “I always mention ‘the QSM Grant’ to people looking for a way to get classroom materials.” Sepulvado hopes more teachers can apply for it in the future so that students can all have the same fulfilling and interactive experiences her students did, with the most random object of all… Barbies.