The Person Behind LabCats
13 years teaching. 30+ years coding. Three very opinionated cats.
The LabCats Story
Bowing to parental peer pressure and the desire to teach my own children to code, I started teaching an after school coding class in 2013 at Murch Elementary School. In the course of that first year, I realized a few things. One, I truly enjoyed teaching coding to kids. Two, it was a lot more work than I anticipated. Three, an after school program wasn't quite the right fit.
So the classes continued but moved to my home — where the WiFi is better, the environment is more focused, and three cats have very strong opinions about every lesson. Thirteen years later I've developed over 15 courses covering three coding paths. The classes have come a long way from our beginning class of simple Scratch. My favorite part is still helping kids develop their own apps. I know I've succeeded as a teacher when they tell me they're coding in their dreams.
The original class — 14 fourth graders at Murch — became the LabCats. They were the lab rats who got the experimental teaching. Some things worked, some didn't. When the classes moved to my house, my three cats joined in. Lab rats became LabCats. Much cuter. Those original LabCats took coding with me for nine years and are now in college — but we still have LabCat OG reunions every summer and winter break.
Elizabeth's Background
Elizabeth Mettler graduated from the University of Virginia in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the School of Engineering and Applied Science. She began her career as a technology consultant at Booz-Allen & Hamilton, then spent two years developing complex client-server systems at MCI as a software developer.
To build on her engineering background she earned her MBA from the University of Colorado, then returned to consulting at Deloitte focusing on web development in Java and SQL.
From there, she joined The Motley Fool — the financial advice website — where she led a development team building a commercial portfolio management product, and later headed Email Marketing Operations, responsible for sending over 2 million subscription emails a day.
In 2001 she founded Mettler Solutions, her consulting company, which has served clients ever since helping them design, create and implement effective web solutions. LabCatsCoding launched in 2013 as a natural extension of that work — and a response to persistent parental pressure.
Technical Expertise
Whenever I speak at career days I like to show a slide of every coding language I've learned over 30 years — it pops up one after the other. It always wows the kids, even though quite a few are obsolete by now. If there's one constant in coding: you have to keep learning.
Currently teaching: PHP · MySQL · JavaScript · HTML5 · CSS3 · Python · WordPress · Git · Flutter · Claude Code
Also in the toolkit: Swift · Flask · Django · Java · jQuery · XML · Java · C
// roots in DC
Active in the Community
Elizabeth has lived in Washington DC for over 30 years. Her children attended Murch Elementary, Alice Deal Middle School, and Jackson-Reed High School — giving her deep ties to the schools and families she teaches.
- Long-term substitute teacher at Jackson-Reed High School — AP Physics, Honors Chemistry, Computer Science, AP Computer Science
- Member of the NAF Academies board at Jackson-Reed (BioMed, IT, and Engineering programs)
- Member of the Local School Advisory Team (LSAT) at Jackson-Reed
- Block captain for DC Natives nonprofit — increasing pollinator gardens across DC
- Created the recruiting website for Alice Deal Middle School
- Active in the Murch Elementary HSA — created the school website, ran the major fundraising campaign for four years
- Dive judge with MCDL — 4+ years
- Girl Scout Troop leader — 8 years
- Assistant baseball coach at Cap City — 5 years
- Forest Hills Playground board member — 4 years
FAQs
What students & parents say
"My son has loved Mettler's coding classes. He appreciates that Elizabeth is able to structure classes to a student's particular pace and abilities, while still having all the kids work together. He already has two Apps in the Apple store."
LabCats family, multiple years
"I have taken this class since I was in 4th grade. I'm a sophomore in high school now. Coding is hard to learn, but as a Lab Cat, I have found coding much more comprehensive. I'm currently making an app...so I should get back to that!"
LabCats student since 4th grade
"Thanks so much for all the extra love, care and encouragement and coding you gave our daughter. She's been beaming with pride, having tackled such a huge project."
LabCats family
My girls have taken classes with LabCatsCoding for a couple of years. They really enjoy it and have been learning a lot. My older daughter and other LabCats kids even won a coding competition sponsored by Facebook.
Parent, two students
Ready to start Coding?
You're in the right place.
Whether you're a complete beginner or a returning LabCat ready for the AI track — drop us a line and we'll find the right fit.
