Browse SA2U Classes | Saturday Academy

Full STEAM Ahead!

Grades 2-3, 4-5 or 6-8

Creating Catapults - Students will explore the physics behind catapults and trebuchets as they design and engineer their very own working models.
Inclined Planes & Wedges – Students explore physics using inclined planes and wedges. They construct devices and then modify them to learn about motion, force and effort.
Pulleys & Levers – Students investigate mechanical engineering by building their own simple machines using pulleys and levers. They construct machines and explore effort, load, and mechanical advantage.
Rube Goldberg – Students gain hands-on engineering experience as they work in small teams to design and build over-engineered contraptions out of everyday materials. Along the way, they will learn about the physics of energy conservation, inertia and forces.
Wheels & Axels – Students explore wheels and axels on simple machines to learn how they affect motion and mechanical advantage.

Grades 2-3, 4-5 or 6-8

Brainteasers – Students explore the tactics used to solve different types of puzzles, codes and games such as Brainteasers and Sudoku.
Codes – Students learn about shift ciphers, the Vigenere cipher, and the Enigma machine in order to better understand how to create secret codes, decode encrypted messages and why it is safe to type a password on the internet.
Optical Illusions – Students learn how to utilize measurements and shapes to create optical illusions. Explore the magic of line design and how to turn perfectly straight lines into curves.
Puzzles – Students solve fiendishly clever puzzles and play ancient games. They discover the strategies behind puzzles as they build their own and learn the tools and tactics for playing classic games.