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Scaling STEAM Without Limits

Elizabeth Dethloff isn’t just implementing STEAM tools — she’s inspiring a culture of innovation across Katy ISD. With a passion for hands-on learning and a belief in student-driven exploration, she’s helped transform how thousands of students engage with engineering and coding. Her work with Strawbees shows what’s possible when the right tools meet the right mindset.

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Elizabeth Dethloff
Instructional Specialist
Katy Independent School
Texas

Background

When serving over 18,000 students in the Katy Independent School District in Texas, Elizabeth was faced with a mammoth task of finding a STEAM solution for classrooms and summer camps, for elementary and junior high, for STEAM nights and enrichment – and it had to be something that was versatile.

“We loved how sturdy the straws and connectors are! Our campus gets a lot of traffic and any of the materials we use MUST be sturdy and able to withstand a lot of wear and tear.”

At first, after purchasing Strawbees kits, it was the engineering design task cards that caught Elizabeth’s attention. Once the collaboration with micro:bit was introduced, the coding challenges became the primary use of Strawbees in Katy ISD.

A student working with Strawbees.

Implementation

“For the past 2-3 years, we have incorporated the Strawbees builds into elementary and junior high school programs. The crane design with micro:bit coded movement has been a great success with lots of opportunities for failures and learning.”

Though, at first Elizabeth was a little bit hesitant around coding. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being a coding expert, she said she would rate herself a 3 or a 4, so diving into coding was a bit terrifying for her.

“What was great, in addition to the Strawbee team’s willingness to walk me through steps, is the (Strawbees Classroom) website’s ability to guide children from beginner to advanced!”

After getting her head around using the connector pieces herself, she was ready to support her students through the building process. The use of Strawbees in Katy ISD expanded beyond just the classroom and into STEAM summer camps, Family STEAM Nights and more. If a teacher asks for it, Elizabeth is happy to give a kit.

Additionally, more and more students and districts are moving towards using laptops and tablets for learning experiences, so the tool had to provide something beyond a textbook.

“I believe students yearn for hands-on challenges like Strawbees offers. They need to be able to use their hands and minds for the trial and error process, making mistakes, revising and redesigning.”

Two students working with Strawbees.

Outcomes

In comparison to other STEM tools, Elizabeth feels that Strawbees clearly stands out for four main reasons:

  • Durability - The solution needed to handle rough treatment, or it wouldn’t make Elizabeth’s list.
  • Ease of Use - Facilitators and students need to be able to jump in and start right away.
  • Customer Service - A team needs to be able to provide adequate support.
  • Growth Potential - The product needs to grow with students, allowing for modeling and individual explorations. 

Elizabeth felt that Strawbees was durable enough to fit the bill, that Strawbees Classroom made it easy to use and follow, support from the Strawbees team was excellent, and that Strawbees allowed her to scale up and grow with her students.

“Working with the Strawbees team has been a wonderful experience, including sales, purchasing, education and tech support.” 

Now Strawbees is implemented in multiple functions across Katy ISD and Elizabeth loans out Strawbees kits to other campuses throughout the school for enrichment as well.

“It’s been one of my favorite things to watch specialist teachers take Strawbees and run with it! You know it’s good when a teacher calls you a week after borrowing it to make sure she is on your schedule for the following school year.”

She’s enjoyed seeing the various applications educators have made with it including a 3rd grader class that designed a jack-o-lantern with micro:bit to customize the “lantern” light, utilizing Strawbees and Makedo parts to design drone prototypes that can pick up and transport cargo.

All of these applications make Strawbees one of her favorite tools implemented across the school district. Because it allows her to give students hands-on opportunities to learn, encourages teamwork, and lets her build those crucial skills, she plans on keeping Strawbees in Katy ISD for a good long while.

“I am not growing direction followers so much as independent thinkers who can problem solve.”

Students working with Strawbees in the classroom.
A student holds up their own Strawbees invention.
Elizabeth working with kids in the classroom.
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Two students working with a laptop and Strawbees.
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