With warmer weather, weeklong breaks and summer vacation on the horizon, the San Francisco-based Brains and Motion Education (BAM!) launched this week to promote the concept of continued progress during classroom downtime or after school with lessons on STEM, arts, sports and social-emotional learning. In a news release this week announcing BAM!’s launch, company officials said “too much of the formal school day is boring for students” due to teacher shortages, standardized testing and lack of differentiated instruction to large groups of students. It also estimated that more than 25 million students have nowhere to go after school and lack access to "structured opportunities to develop skills outside of the school day.”
"Many schools would love to teach students how to play chess, program robots, develop computational thinking skills, create sophisticated digital artwork, become strong creative writers, and provide students with meaningful exposure to artificial intelligence systems through project-based learning," BAM! CEO Bart Epstein said in a public statement. "There just isn't enough time in the school day. These types of enrichment activities can and should be available to every student, regardless of their ZIP code."
Families in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Chicago, San Diego, Seattle and Denver have already signed up for the company's structured recess, afterschool or summer camp programs, according to the news release. The company website notes BAM! has so far partnered with 1,100 schools serving 93,000 children between the ages of 4 and 14.
According to the company website, once a school or learning entity establishes a location and dates for activities, BAM! provides the instruction plan, staff and equipment, including sports gear, laptops, robotics parts and other materials for STEM projects. For STEM programs, BAM!’s approach is to “adapt to each student’s learning level, evolving basic understanding into active problem-solving and creation.”
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and significant learning loss nationwide, afterschool and summer enrichment programming for school-aged children is getting more attention. According to November 2022 research by the National Center for Education Statistics, 43 percent of U.S. schools after the start of the 2022-2023 year offered afterschool enrichment activities for students, and 30 percent of school offerings involved high-dosage tutoring with three or more small-group or one-on-one instruction sessions per week. And 70 percent of U.S. schools operated learning and enrichment programs in the summer of 2022.
According to the company's officials and partners, more schools can grow these programs if they work with third parties who can provide the services in a cost-effective way.
"Providing our families with access to enrichment activities after 3 p.m. and during dedicated break times throughout the academic day helps us with some of the biggest problems in education at a fraction of the cost of formal education and at a small percentage more than basic aftercare," Lesem Puerto, community school partnership manager at the nonprofit Children's Institute in Los Angeles, said in a public statement. "Students who attend inspiring project-based enrichment programs during recess and lunch, and beyond, are more engaged during the school day. That's something that we all love to see."
