Professional Development

Stay tuned for more to be scheduled!

Musical Instrument Making

Anyone can create their own unique electronic musical instruments. Using Strawbees, micro:bit, Quirkbot, fruit, and the Internet. Endless fun and beautiful music!

Grant Funding with Strawbees

Join for a session on learning the tricks of applying for US grants funding resources for your classroom. Sam and Abigail will share key writing tips, phrases, and ideas of how Strawbees can become part of your students’ regular learning experiences! After completing this workshop you will structure a flexible outline with written principles for your next proposal.

Do your :bit with Codejoy

Help CodeJoy and Strawbees team design and test building structures that can withstand an earthquake with remote coding online. This earthquake will be simulated by a micro:bit-powered shake table made with the Strawbees Robotic Invention Kit as we explore UN Global Goal 13 - Climate Action.  

Entering the Global Music Challenge

Strawbees is scouting children, ages 6-14, to build musical instruments. Learn how to enter with Lindsay and get creative tips from Erik Thorstensson in this informative session. Submit projects by August 14th, 2021.

Do Your :bit Challenge

Thematic lesson on designing a model of a city and the citizens within. This is a class as an idea/topic for teachers to talk about responsible development and the environmental impact of building a city with maintaining a high concentration of people and the production of carbon emissions to defend against climate change with rising sea level and weather changes. Students discuss how the city model built is climate-friendly and what can be done to improve and support climate-protecting policies and urban designs that are environmentally friendly. We will incorporate both Global Goal 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) and Global Goal 13 (Climate) as part of this experience.

Hour of code

Venture into Flow programming and coding with sine waves using the Friendbot. Learning to code objects more realistically as they usually don’t just start and stop instantly, and almost never move at a constant speed. You can participate in this session without a Quirkbot in hand using the brand new CODE simulator. Test and execute your programs with the virtual servos and LED hardware. Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science.     

Let kids create the change our world needs

Join Maker Maven and Joakim Larsson, from Strawbees, to learn more about Strawbees and how they ‘let kids create the change our world needs!’ by coding, creative confidence, and hands-on rapid prototyping!

Joakim will discuss how Strawbees is a tool for creative learning, the foundation of Strawbees Learning and Education, and will demonstrate activities with physical computing.

Getting started: Coding & Robotics with Quirkbot

Join for a getting started session with Quirkbot. The first half includes becoming familiar with the Quirkbot, how to assemble the board together with the electronic components of LEDs and servo motors, and Strawbees CODE with the Coding cards. The second half is about programming using the Friendbot with the new Event blocks.

Getting started with Robotic Inventions for micro:bit

Assemble the Robotic Inventions board with the micro:bit together with Lindsay. Get started on using the Strawbees extension, coding cards and the new resources for physical computing projects in MakeCode!

Artbots and Architecture

Learn about creative education using architecture & design as holistic real-world phenomena to integrate STEAM subjects from Arkki International, with 26 years of experience and programs approved by the Finnish Ministry of Education.

Halfway through join for a short workshop of building Artbots with Quirkbot. Experiment coding movement and visualize the robot’s movement in an interesting way with markers, watercolor, or any drawing media you have at home.

SamLabs & Strawbees - Remote Learning for Back to School

Watch this webinar as we reveal our collaboration with Sam Yancey, Gifted Teacher at Haywood County Schools on the new distance learning offerings, designed for in-school and at-home learning with Samlabs and Strawbees.

City building and the SDGs

Design a city around different scenarios such as geographic location, population growth, conservation, preservation, or prevention against natural disasters. Learn how to implement concepts of sustainability into a city’s development with the United Nation 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

• Watch class 1
• Watch class 2
• Watch class 3
• Watch class 4

Ideas with Strawbees + micro:bit 

In this playinar with Katie Henry from the Micro:bit Education Foundation and Lindsay from Strawbees are giving an introduction to micro:bit & Strawbees using the brand new Robotic Inventions board for physical computing.

Strawbees + Makey Makey Mashup

Watch our hands-on playinar 'Makey Makey + Strawbees Mashup' - it was epic! We found the #RoundtheWorld_ChainReaction Challenge to be a great encouragement to keep learning through play at home. It's also a fun way to connect your ideas with the global community! So grab your Makey Makey, a Strawbees set, and some household materials and join our silly and fun chain reactions below!

Storytelling with micro:bit and Strawbees

Watch our hands-on playinar 'Storytelling with micro:bit + Strawbees'. We want to encourage educators to keep learning through play at home. Bring your micro:bit and Strawbees and anything you have to make a friend(bot) together!

Engineering with paper

Watch our hands-on Playniar 'Engineering with Paper' by creators Godwyn Morris, Paula Frisch, and Lindsay Balfour. The techniques presented give students foundational engineering skills to use for design thinking and engineering challenges. Have paper, tape, scissors, Strawbees, and straws handy to join us for some Engineering with Paper adventures.

Online course

Sign-up to take a guided course when launched with the Strawbees Education team and dive into deeper experiences individually or together as a teacher team in your learning environment!