IDEA Lab® Kids Selected for Google StartEd Program
The Houston-based franchise will receive mentorship and support to scale its STEAM on Demand® platform, which offers schools and after school programs an innovative solution for ensuring STEM+Arts learning begins in the early stages of education.
HOUSTON, TX - Lyricos® Learning’s IDEA Lab® Kids, the education-based franchise system with an emphasis on a cutting-edge STEM plus Arts (STEAM) curriculum, is thrilled to announce its selection for the Google StartEd program.
Founded nearly a decade ago by education focused entrepreneurs, StartEd is dedicated to fostering a network of innovators committed to ensuring equitable, quality education and lifelong learning for all. Having supported the growth of over 2,500 companies and established a mentor network of more than 800 senior leaders with expertise in early-stage EdTech companies, StartEd has now partnered with Google Cloud. Together they identify a select group of companies poised for growth and provide personal coaching, hands-on training, business support and access to a vast network of industry experts, along with additional benefits such as cloud credits, technical support from Google Cloud and coaching from Google's education leadership.
"We met the StartEd team at the ASU+GSV Summit in April, which is when we learned about the program,” said IDEA Lab Kids President Devina Bhojwani. “We loved that it offered personal hand-on coaching and training for passionate entrepreneurs and up-and-coming businesses like us.”
Bhojwani says IDEA Lab Kids is primarily leveraging the program to support the company’s edtech initiatives including STEAM on Demand®, a technology platform that offers science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) interactive lessons “on demand” that are designed to be used in a IDEA Lab Kids franchise location or directly by schools in a collaborative classroom setting or online. Hundreds of interactive video lessons have been developed as part of the platform’s core content, which can be used by schools and districts to help educators teach lessons.
“We’ve developed a great product not only for our franchise system but for the entire education market, making our quality content accessible to all students, schools and districts,” Bhojwani said. “Google StartEd has given us valuable access to mentors and education leaders, and we are very excited to have access to the right people, as it allows us to network."
The IDEA Lab Kids team attended the Google BOLD Immersion Program in July, for example. “It was an amazing opportunity to meet leaders in the education space, marketing, HR, sales, etc.,” Bhojwani said. “We even presented our platform in a Shark Tank format in a two minute pitch and were able to hear some valuable feedback at the end of it.”
Looking ahead, IDEA Lab Kids will be working with the Google team to continue to innovate and evolve the STEAM on Demand platform, including translating the videos into Spanish using A.I. tools and integrating assessments into Google Classroom, a feature requested by customers.
But perhaps IDEA Lab Kids’ most significant gain from the program thus far comes with Operations & Product Manager Kelly Kawa, who actually joined the company after meeting the IDEA Lab Kids team as a mentor in the Immersion Program. Kawa brings over eight years of experience at high-growth EdTech companies, focused on product operations, program management and people support.
“I love what IDEA Lab Kids is doing through their award winning franchises and the extension of their high quality content to support all K-12 programs,” said Kawa. “I am all about classroom access and equity. By aligning the content to teaching standards through STEAM on Demand, any teacher or paraprofessional can easily use our fun and engaging content in their classrooms and after-school programs. Our goal is to make teaching science and engineering lessons so easy, teachers love teaching them and students will think more about careers in these areas.”
As part of the IDEA Lab Kids and STEAM on Demand team, Kawa is focused on the company’s systems and content development for both the franchises and for STEAM on Demand. "My role now is to plan for content roll-out, feature enhancements as well to standardize systems and processes across all of our teams,” she said. “We continuously look to make teaching STEM and Arts as fun and easy as possible while offering all the features students and teachers need. I’m really looking forward to all the opportunities that lie ahead of us. We have some exciting plans in the areas of multi-languages, assessments, and interactivity.”
To learn more about franchising with IDEA Lab Kids, visit https://1851franchise.com/lyricoslearning/info.
ABOUT LYRICOS® LEARNING, LLC:
Lyricos® Learning, LLC is the home to IDEA Lab Kids and is also the creator of STEAM on Demand, a leading provider of streaming interactive content and tools for planning and leading standards-aligned, engaging, and fun TK-8 STEAM hands-on lessons.
ABOUT IDEA LAB® KIDS:
IDEA Lab® Kids was founded as a way for kids to explore their love of science, technology, engineering, art, and math subjects. The award-winning Houston-based education franchise system offers after-school classes, camps, birthday parties, open labs, and much more to children. The brand has positioned itself to be a leader in the growing STEAM education space with franchises in the U.S., Canada, and internationally. IDEA Lab Kids franchises are only offered or sold in states where they are registered or compliant with applicable franchise laws.
ABOUT STEAM ON DEMAND:
STEAM on Demand® is a technology platform that offers science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) interactive lessons “on demand” which are designed to be used in a collaborative classroom setting or online. Hundreds of interactive video lessons have been developed as part of the platform’s core content. These kid-tested videos spotlight topics that align with national and state level curriculum standards across all STEAM subjects and guide teachers and students through hands-on projects. Also included is access to a variety of coding pathways for students of all levels. The platform provides all the content and tools needed to plan and conduct entire afterschool programs.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS
IDEA Lab Kids Rolls Out Updated STEAM On Demand Platform to Better Support Large School Districts and Diverse Learners
The Importance of After-School Programming for STEM Education and Planting Seeds for Future Careers
Lyricos Learning Supports Hawthorne School District with Innovative STEAM on Demand Program
IDEA Lab Kids Central Houston Revitalizes STEM Programming at Horn Elementary