Empowering Every Learner with STEM

The process of building on projects has helped students not just learn to be better collaborators, but it’s helped them learn the design process. 

“As they change plans, what I’m noticing is the value in the process. The product is nice, but it’s the process and how they are collaborating. Students are helping others. They do the build first, plan it out, and then when they’re done testing they can start working on the code.”

The benefit that Steve sees is that this design process can work in all different grade levels. It starts with identifying three dimensional figures, especially in elementary schools where it is hard to use things like cutting boards and hot glue guns where Steve doesn’t have the space in his classroom.

“I teach all of the subject matters. If I was in a middle school, I could build my classroom specifically for these activities. After recess, I’ll have social studies so we’ve got to have time to clean up and put all of this somewhere. But Strawbees is the most accessible.”

In terms of being limited by budget, Steve also finds Strawbees has way more potential than other tools because of its lower cost. Because of the flexibility and accessibility, Steve has found that it also has the ability to encourage patience and leadership among students.

“I don’t see it as a bad thing if students get stuck. I just see it as part of the troubleshooting process and debugging which is necessary for learning.”

Because of the way Strawbees has helped his students work through problems together, Steve is keen to continue to use Strawbees in lessons going forward. The collaboration of the gifted students with the other students has proven to Steve that he’s going to use Strawbees not just in the classroom but also in after school programs. There is only one obstacle.

“I need more though! I hear the students say ‘Mr. P, we’re out of motors!’ and then I’m thinking, ‘I need more motors!’. You make my job easier because the kids absolutely adore Strawbees”