STEAM Through Motion: Mobile Gymnastics for Equity & Opportunity

K-12 STEAM education

Central LA East LA South LA San Gabriel Valley West LA South Bay Long Beach County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) Other (below) City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

In Los Angeles, a child’s zip code still determines their access to STEAM education. In underfunded K–8 schools—especially those serving Black, Brown, and low-income communities—early STEAM experiences are often absent, developmentally misaligned, or reduced to screen-based instruction. Yet research shows young children learn best through movement: kinesthetic exploration activates the brain for spatial awareness, sequencing, and critical thinking—core STEM skills. Without real-world, body-based applications like gymnastics, early learners miss the chance to build cognitive foundations when they’re most malleable. This lack of accessible, culturally responsive STEAM creates disengagement before STEM identity ever begins to form. We’re not just facing a learning gap—we’re compounding generational disconnection from innovation. If we want equity in tomorrow’s workforce, we must move differently—starting now, with our youngest learners.

This grant will fund the expansion of Fun-nastics Gymnastics, a mobile STEAM education initiative that transforms movement into academic momentum. Designed for underserved K–8 schools, our program turns gyms, blacktops, and parks into living labs—where students explore force, balance, angles, and velocity through full-body engagement. Using authentic gymnastics equipment, our instructors guide children through hands-on lessons rooted in physics and spatial reasoning, embedded with academic vocabulary and inquiry. But this is more than a lesson plan—it’s an intervention. In communities where STEAM is underfunded, misaligned, or nonexistent, we embed equity through action. We center kinesthetic learners, uplift culturally relevant teaching, and close access gaps before they widen. With LA2050’s support, we’ll scale a model that doesn’t just teach kids about science—it lets them feel it, move through it, and own it. This is STEAM education that sticks—because it lives in the body.

In many communities across Los Angeles, recreational equity is a myth. Gymnastics—despite its proven benefits for physical health, emotional regulation, and academic readiness—remains largely inaccessible to Black and Brown children in underserved neighborhoods. Facilities are expensive, distant, and often unwelcoming.
We’re solving three interconnected problems:
Lack of access to affordable gymnastics and STEAM-based physical enrichment in marginalized communities.

Exclusion from opportunity pathways—including scholarships, athletic development, and early motor skill formation—due to cost and location.

Low physical activity rates tied to childhood obesity, fear of heights, low muscle tone, and social-emotional delays.

Fun Station L.A./I.E. removes these barriers by bringing the program to the child—equipped, insured, and embedded in their school day or community center. We don’t ask families to come to us. We show up for them.