Making STEM Work Across Ages and Programs After School
Vonna Morgan, Program Manager at After-School All-Stars Texas, needed a STEM tool that could span K–12 students, fit part-time staff training, and work across four program pillars.
With Strawbees, she found a flexible, screen-free, and cost-effective solution that kids—and middle schoolers especially—loved. From mood meters to bike prototypes, Strawbees became her go-to for hands-on enrichment that travels easily and engages everyone.
Vonna Morgan
Program Manager
After-School All-Stars
Texas
Background
“When I first saw it, I was thinking to myself… These are straws. I freaked out.”
At first, Vonna thought Strawbees would be difficult, especially not having teachers on staff at After-School All-Stars.
Vonna has spent 15+ years in Education and Non-profits with many of those years dedicated to Special Education and began at After-School All-Stars as part-time staff member, moving up towards Site Coordinator and then to Program Manager.
After-School All-Stars is a non-profit free and comprehensive program with four pillars: STEM, Health and Nutrition, Art and Social Emotional Learning that focuses on middle school but has bloomed into other areas. Vonna has been responsible for ensuring that the STEM curriculum is solid during her time as a program manager. There is an after school program, a campus that handles K-12 and other extended programs across the state.
Implementation
As an effective Program Manager, Vonna has to ensure that whatever STEM tool she works with, even though she focuses mostly on middle school, she does work with all age ranges from kindergarten to 12th grade, which means she has to incorporate all different curriculums in her approach.
“My target became finding curriculum that would span all different age groups, even if they were in the same room. They should be getting the same type of lesson, even if it’s on several different levels.”
Working previously in education gave Vonna both an upper hand in scaffolding lessons for all different levels and also working with Strawbees. Also, the part-time nature of many staff meant that they don’t always have time to do the same lesson planning that teachers often had so Vonna had to make sure that she could implement something that worked for her staff. So introducing something like Strawbees initially was a bit skeptical. During the first demo, they had 50 students instead of 30, but after a 45 minute demonstration, Vonna was sold. Still, she didn’t know how her other students might take it.
“Middle schoolers are some of the most honest people you will ever meet in your entire life. They do not hold back. They have no filter. When I asked them after we packed up the kits if they would do it again, they were like, ‘Of course we would!’”
When Vonna asked why, the students began to describe the ways they would change their design and engineer it better. The fact that they were using the language of design and engineering sold Vonna on how Strawbees could properly be implemented in her lessons. She was also a little hesitant because of the other technological advancements that students are used to dealing with.
“Students are connected to a whole bunch of electronics and I did not think that Strawbees would hold up. But what I have found is that Strawbees not only holds up but it can be in the same rooms as some of the other curriculum that we have vetted. It yields to other activities and mentorship that we try to hold onto in our after school settings and it gives students a STEM activity they can do without a screen.”
Vonna also had to contradict the initial underwhelmed reactions to the straws, but once that was overcome, she was able to show them how to implement lessons that are in alignment with TEKS standards.
Outcomes
Because of both the cost and the effortless implementation, Strawbees has been one of the few programs that she has been able to implement across all of the programs that After-School All-Stars has at every site and beyond every pillar – not just STEM.
“Sometimes we use Strawbees as an opening activity within social and emotional learning. The mood meter we use has four colours and the Strawbees straws and connectors can be used with the mood meter. I’ll say for every emotion that you had today, pick the color of the straw that matches and build from that.”
With a visible representation of the student’s emotions, Vonna can then ask follow up questions about how the students are feeling. She also has implemented Strawbees in the physical activity pillar by creating bicycles and exercise equipment.
“Strawbees has allowed students to build their critical thinking and problem solving skills without the headache of some of your more expensive equipment.”
The portability of what Strawbees offers also allows her to take it from school to school.
“I always have a Strawbees kit in my car. We are always running back and forth and now I have teachers that are like, ‘Can you go get your kit out of your car? We may need it today.’ So for us, it’s not only been sustainable. It’s been one of our better investments.”
Vonna also finds students who struggle with reading and she finds that when she takes out the kit, she can partner up students with others and put them in groups which allows them to break down barriers and create new friends.
As the program expands, Vonna wants to continue to use Strawbees especially with part-time staff and integrate Strawbees into the standard part of training rather than having it just with full-time staff and because it allows for easy application across all of the programs.
“It’s a great turnkey solution that doesn’t take a lot of effort on the part of the adults in the room.”
Effective After-School STEM
“I always have a Strawbees kit in my car. We are always running back and forth and now I have teachers that are like, ‘Can you go get your kit out of your car? We may need it today.’ So for us, it’s not only been sustainable. It’s been one of our better investments.”
Vonna Morgan
Program Manager, After-School All-Stars, Texas