BU Wheelock: As an advisor to Lyla in the Loop, what excites you most about working on the series?

Nermeen Dashoush: As a science educator, I’m excited about seeing problem-solving, the design process, and computational thinking every day. It’s also about the racial representation.

It’s also funny and cute, and the characters are so joyful.

BU Wheelock: What skills can children learn from watching Lyla?

Nermeen Dashoush: Our main focus is on how to solve problems by breaking things down into parts and making them more manageable. We take computational thinking skills that are the precursor to computer science—for example, algorithms and decomposition—and present them in a way that’s part of our everyday lives, since we all solve problems every day.

BU Wheelock: There’s a perception that studying science is a solitary activity. What does Lyla show kids about this notion?

Nermeen Dashoush: The misconception that science is a solo process has to be broken in many ways. Science isn’t a solo process; it’s a social process. So we show how people interact to solve problems, like Lyla, her family, and her friends. We’re working on it from the teacher ed perspective, but we also need to work on it in informal learning as well, such as in museums, on TV shows, and in technology.

BU Wheelock: Lyla features a Black protagonist alongside a very diverse cast of family, friends, and neighbors. How did the team ensure such rich representation?

Nermeen Dashoush: Lyla’s family is Black, and her mother is Jamaican. We also have a Vietnamese family on the show. We wanted to make sure we captured authentic stories, voices, names, and the designs of homes in every step of the process. To help do that, we had a diversity, equity, and inclusion advisor. Our team was diverse behind the scenes, too: our lead writer is Black, and we have multiple Black writers.

BU Wheelock: What impact is the diversity represented on the show having so far?

Nermeen Dashoush: We’ve heard from kids: “She looks like me,” “She has my hair,” and so on. My daughter, for example, recognizes that the characters have curly hair and sleep with bonnets. She said, “She has a bonnet just like me.” The show is powerful in creating a mirror and window into a child’s life that was really missing in kids’ media.

BU Wheelock: Are there any lessons in the work you’re doing on Lyla for students working toward degrees in education?

Nermeen Dashoush: Learning doesn’t only happen in the classroom. We can also use our degrees and expertise to influence informal learning spaces as well, such as technology and the media. When students learn about curriculum design or teacher education materials, they can transfer those skills to scripts, animation, illustrations, or family engagement material.

I used my skills in communicating concepts to parents through media, implementing learning objectives, developing lesson plans as an advisor to the show, and advising on multiple apps that are developed to accompany the series. I’d love to see my students reading something like this and see how those skills from their degrees transfer.