Creativity, Coding & Community Building with Strawbees
With more than 20 years of experience in Texas classrooms, a dedicated STEM educator at El Campo Middle School is transforming hands-on learning for her gifted and talented students.
After discovering Strawbees at a technology conference, she immediately recognized its potential to spark creativity and problem-solving. What began as simple exploration has evolved into a vibrant STEM program—where students build, code, and innovate with curiosity and confidence.
Holly Guthrie
STEM Teacher
El Campo ISD
Texas
Background
Holly Guthrie, M.Ed., is a seasoned educator with over two decades of experience in Texas classrooms. For the last 16 years, she’s taught across sixth, seventh, and eighth grades at El Campo Middle School. Three years ago, Holly transitioned into a full-time STEM teaching role, an opportunity that ignited her passion for hands-on, creative learning.
While attending a technology conference, Holly discovered Strawbees and immediately saw the potential.
"I learned about Strawbees and thought they were super cool... I saw how easy it was with the lessons that were already online, and then took it from there and added more stuff to it to engage my students further."
Implementation
Strawbees has become an integral part of Holly’s STEM curriculum, giving her students, most of whom are gifted and talented learners, a way to explore, build, and problem-solve. Using the Strawbees challenge cards, students randomly draw a design problem and work through it using both construction and critical thinking.
The learning starts with foundational tinkering, learning how to connect and build, but quickly evolves into high-level STEM integration. Holly explains how integrating Strawbees into the classroom was simple and straightforward.
"We started just using the Strawbees and letting them look at them, figure out how to put them together, how to take them apart... and then we added the robotics pieces and started allowing them to do some of the programming and coding."
This approach not only built the students' engineering and programming skills but also encouraged autonomy, collaboration, and play-based exploration.
Outcomes
Holly’s most memorable Strawbees moments reflect just how far creativity can go when students are given the freedom to explore. From inventing educational toys to designing life on the moon, her classroom has transformed into a space where imagination meets technical skill.
The one standout project Holly described took students out of this world, literally.
"This year we did communities and had them build a community on the moon. Some of them (students) made a tabletop-size idea, and some of them had a full-size idea where they were climbing inside of it. It was truly fascinating."
For Holly and her students, these types of projects brought together design thinking, coding, storytelling, and collaboration in one unified, engaging learning experience.
Strawbees is more than just an educational tool, it has generated a mindset shift for both Holly and her students. Her advice to other educators is to embrace the learning curve and trust in the creative process.
"It does tend to be a little daunting at first, so don't stop. Just keep going and let the kids experiment with it as well."
Holly would also encourage fellow teachers to step back and let students lead.
"Sometimes the kids would teach me things before I could teach them something, and we all learn together, it was really a lot of fun."
How Holly Implements STEM
"Strawbees is a building format that allows students to be able to use their creativity and lots of imagination."
Holly Guthrie, M.Ed.
STEM Instructor, El Campo Middle School, Texas