An LSU graduate student has created a new STEM curriculum designed to engage middle school girls in science through fashion dolls.
Chance Bennett, a 2024 graduate student, has been working on this project for the past 15 years. It all started in 2011 at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette when she switched her major from nursing to fashion design.
Bennett came up with an idea to create her own line of iconic fashion dolls. In Bennett’s original designs, the dolls were five African-American sisters, each with their own unique superpower and sense of style.
After being frustrated with fashion design, Bennett transferred to Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge, where she fell in love with biology. She planned to continue her education and go to medical school, but after having her daughter, her plans changed.
She decided to go into teaching instead, so that she could have time to be with her daughter and still enjoy her love for biology. While she was training to become a teacher, she realized just how little her students actually knew about biology.
“They had a model of Luca, which is the oldest organism that [scientists] found that basically had all the requirements needed to sustain life, and they didn’t even know what it was,” Bennett said.
Her training allowed her to see first hand how the education system was failing these children.
“They’re kind of being predisposed to failure because they have to take these standardized tests,” Bennett said, “That kind of stayed with me after that, and I think that’s one of the things that piqued my interest about education too.”
For financial reasons, Bennett took a seven year hiatus from Our Lady of the Lake before continuing her education at LSU. While she was in graduate school, she was assigned to present a STEM program for a research assignment.
Her mind immediately went back to her fashion doll designs, and she began brainstorming how she could incorporate them into her assignment. Bennett adapted the story, giving each of the sisters a superpower that embodied the principles and concepts of Louisiana state science standards.
Seraphina’s power is enhanced cellular energy, which her character uses to teach about ATP production and bioenergies. Her sister Electra Blush has bioelectrical manipulation, which connects to neutral networks and electricities.
Prismatica can manipulate light, which teaches girls about photosynthesis and optics. Radiance has the power to store energy and self-heal, which her character uses to teach about photosynthetic adaptation.
Finally, Fuchsia Flame has rapid adaptation powers, which connect to evolution and genetic flexibility.
By creating characters that middle school girls could admire, Bennett was able to make complicated science concepts easier to understand. She believes that in order to get kids interested in a topic, they need to be able to connect with it first.
“Eighth and ninth grade is the drop of rate for [many minority girls] as far as having interest,” Bennet said. “They lose interest because they can’t connect with it.”
On Sunday at New St. John Fellowship in Gonzales, La., Bennett was able to introduce her curriculum.
The curriculum is entirely online, where students can access a digital platform called The Pink School of Stem that allows them to interact with the five main characters and complete “missions” that each teach a different science lesson.
She has lessons for sixth through eighth graders, changing based on the state standards for each grade.
Through Bennett’s program, young girls are able to connect with science, helping them to understand complex concepts and stay motivated in their education.
“It seems weird right? Like they let us teach science with this? What is this? Barbie dolls?” Bennett said. “But it helps girls connect to it… I can’t wait to see how it impacts them.”