Who is LabCatsCoding?

LabCatsCoding is run by Elizabeth Mettler who is assisted by high school students who have studied with her for over many years.

My Background

Upon graduating from the University of Virginia in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Ms. Mettler worked for Booz-Allen & Hamilton for three years as a technology consultant. She then spent two years developing complex client server systems at MCI as a software developer. In order to build on her engineering background, Ms. Mettler attended graduate business school at the University of Colorado. Upon acquiring her MBA, she again returned to consulting and worked for Deloitte Consulting for one year focusing on web site development in Java and SQL.

Lured by the Internet buzz, Ms. Mettler then joined the team at The Motley Fool, a financial advice web site targeted at individual investors. During her years there , she led a development team creating a commercial portfolio management product. Next, as head of Email Marketing Operations, her team was responsible for sending over 2 million subscription emails a day as well as generating revenue via email marketing campaigns.

Over the course of her career, Ms. Mettler has consistently taken on freelance projects - from an environmental water quality database to developing financial internet sites. In May of 2001, she decided to build upon her combined technical expertise and business experience to begin her own consulting company. Since then, Mettler Solutions has served a variety of clients by helping them design, create and implement effective web sites.

Why LabCatsCoding?

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 where my kids went to 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 then 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 and the ability to teach is infinitely better.   Nine years later, I have developed over 15 courses that cover 3 basic coding paths.  The classes have come a long way from our beginning class of simple Scratch and I now focus on middle school and high school students.  My favorite part is helping the kids develop their own apps.  I know that I have succeeded as a teacher when they tell me that they are coding in their dreams!

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Technical Expertise

Whenever I speak at a career day or similar event, I like to start off with a slide that shows all the coding languages and tech skills I have picked up over 30 years popping up one after the other.  It always wows the kids even though quite a few of them are obsolete by now.  However, that serves a useful purpose as if there is one constant in coding....you have to keep learning!

  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • JavaScript
  • HTML5
  • CSS3
  • WordPress front end and back end development.
  • GIT
  • Python
  • Flutter
  • Swift
  • Flask
  • Django
  • Drupal
  • Modx
  • XML
  • jQuery
  • Joomla
  • Java
  • Visual Basic
  • .NET
  • C
  • Perl
  • Active Server Pages
  • Clipper
  • Icon
  • VBA
  • Paradox
  • Cobol
  • Foxbase
  • dbase III
  • Lisp
  • Unix
  • Pascal
  • DOS
  • Fortran
  • Basic

Community Involvement

I have lived in Washington DC for over 30 years. My three kids all attended Murch Elementary School and Alice Deal Middle School and are now at Jackson-Reed High School.  I am very active in the community including the following activities:

  • Long-term AP Physics Substitute teacher at Jackson-Reed High for 14 weeks in the Fall-Winter of 2021.
  • A block captain for DC Natives nonprofit to help increase the number of pollinator gardens.
  • Member of the SciMaTech advisory board at Jackson-ReedHigh School.
  • Created website for recruiting teachers for Alice Deal Middle School.
  • Active in the Murch Elementary School HSA - created the school's website and still serve as the back end and emergency help. Ran the school's major fundraising campaign for four years.
  • Dive judge for over 4 years and counting with MCDL.
  • Girl Scout Troop leader for 8 years.
  • Assistant baseball coach at Cap City for 5 years.
  • Forest Hills Playground board member for 4 years.