LA Unified School District

Launched early this year, Lyricos Learning’s STEAM on Demand® program offers schools an innovative solution for ensuring STEM+Arts learning begins in UTK. The live-streaming platform provides educators with everything they need to offer TK–6 enrichment classes, without requiring any specialized teaching credentials. This year, schools are eagerly signing up to partner with the service, which quickly established itself as a go-to resource for educators in the age of COVID.

One of the first schools to pilot STEAM on Demand® was Los Angeles Unified School District’s Purche Avenue Elementary, a neighborhood school plus a STEAM magnet center whose principal, Dr. Gina Barnett, says the program is exactly what the school needs.

“We were looking for a supplemental STEAM program to enhance our current project-based curriculum,” she said, “and our coordinators were blown away by what they saw.”

“Effective STEAM instruction enhances and expands on the general core curriculum,” Dr. Barnett said. “It sparks curiosity and ultimately sparks academic achievement.”

Teachers at Purche Avenue Elementary were able to test and experiment with the platform thoroughly before introducing it to students, and the response has led to the entire school implementing it, says Devina Bhojwani, President of Lyricos Learning.

“We were thrilled to see how excited everyone at Purche Avenue Elementary was,” she said. “As more educators get on board with what we’re doing, we’re able to further push the limits of what our platform can offer and continue to provide hands-on enrichment opportunities for students.”

Key to STEAM on Demand’s success is the universal accessibility it offers to schools and students, helping them remove barriers and mitigate achievement gaps, a crucial benefit for schools like Purche, where the overwhelming majority of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Demographically, Purche’s student body is 55% Black and 45% Hispanic.

As Purche Avenue Elementary and other schools leverage STEAM on DemandSM to provide more and better learning opportunities for students, Lyricos Learning is using their feedback to increase the breadth and effectiveness of the platform.

“We are extremely proud of this platform and have been very intentional with the diversity of our actors on screen,” Bhojwani said. “Every student and educator who engages with STEAM on Demand® provides crucial data that we can use to make the platform even stronger, and we’re so excited to see the momentum building.”

Already, Dr. Barnett says she has seen a marked improvement in her students’ confidence thanks to STEAM on Demand®.

“It’s been an incredibly valuable tool,” Dr. Barnett said. “As a school, we are always looking for ways to even the playing field for our students, and STEAM on Demand® allows us to ensure that every student has access to top-tier programming no matter their circumstances.”