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2022-2023 In-Person and Virtual Classes

SA2U Class Catalog

Select from the following:

Marine Biology (Grades 2-12, In-Person or Online): Take a journey through our ocean’s ecosystems! Where animals the size of a pin to animals bigger than a bus live and interact in various types of environments. Learn about kelp forests and deep sea bottoms, as well as the impacts we humans have on each of these places. Watch a squid dissection and follow-along with a model squid. Learn about the unique animals that live under the sea!

Medical & Scientific Illustration (Grades 9 - 12, Online): New! Learn traditional medical, biological and/or botanical illustration techniques using graphite and pen/ink, including stippling, crosshatching, and line drawings. Through these techniques you'll explore the world through a different lens as you learn how to bring the smallest and even hidden details to the surface in your drawings. Then discover how these skills can benefit you as a creative career in many forms of illustration that interest you.

Nature Photography (Grades 6-12, In-person or Online): Learn about photography through exploring your surroundings. This course is an introduction to nature photography using digital cameras or smartphones. Master the basic controls on your camera while learning about composition, perspective and light as you get up close with local flora. Find the beauty in the everyday and create unique images. Collaborate with classmates to choose the best photos to share and present in a final slideshow.

Entomology 101: Bugs are Cool!: Uncover the weird and incredible facts about our invertebrate friends that you never knew you needed to know! Learn about insect evolution and classification while discovering how you can help them help the world. Explore using a scientific journal to collect observations and then artistically express your new found love for bugs. You’ll even meet some super special six and eight legged new friends.

Art and Science of Field Journaling: Cultivate your curiosity and appreciation for nature through field journaling! In this camp, learn how to create and bind a Nature Journal from recycled materials, then get outdoors and record the natural world in your journal! Learn classic artistic and scientific techniques for observing the natural world, including: found object collections, plant pressing, species identification, sun (cyanotype) prints, mapping, and scientific illustration techniques like cross-sections, gesture sketching, and more! Open yourself up to countless new discoveries and hidden worlds—enrich your understanding of our local environment, its natural rhythms, and its many amazing inhabitants!

Ecology and Evolution: Description & grade ranges coming soon!

Wildlife Illustration: Train your eye and hand to express yourself in simple but powerful ways. Using pencil, ink, charcoal and markers, create portraits of animals or plants.. Learn techniques for shading, contouring and perspective to help you create depth and proportion in your drawings. Step by step instruction, including animals in motion will be covered. You will choose from a variety of animals that are native to North America and learn about the habits and habitat of each species that you draw, from a bee to a large mammal.

Sports Science: Learn about the science behind your favorite sports. Test out the perfect ball inflation, calculate the velocity of your favorite athletes (as well as your very own!) and understand the importance behind sports safety equipment. For any kid who plays sports or just has a love of the game, this action-packed camp will have you exercising your body and your brain!

Create & Illustrate a Storybook (Grades 2-4, In-Person or Online): Write and illustrate your own storybook. Learn the basic elements of story writing: character, dialogue, setting, plot and action. Write your story and use colored pens, pencils or paint to create illustrations to accompany your work. Create a one-of-a-kind storybook to share with friends and family.

Speech & Debate (Grades 6-12, In-Person or Online): Learn the basics of public speaking and experience what it is like to be on a debate team. Read, watch and analyze great speeches. Practice extemporaneous speaking and debating on an array of topics.

From Page to Stage (Grades 9-12, In-Person or Online): Let your voice be heard! Looking for a safe, creative space to test your writing, delivery or improv skills with a social justice lens? This class is for you! Have fun learning how to deliver a knockout speech while gaining interpersonal and communication skills. The course incorporates speech writing skills, improv techniques and theatre games. Additionally, learn about the history of Oregon and the state's racial and gender justice. Culminate the week by designing a performance and/or writing a speech on a topic of your choosing.

Creative Writing (Grades 5-12, In-Person or Online): Unlock your creative writing potential. Learn how to turn your ideas into rich, imaginative prose and poetry. Use professional writing techniques such as writing from memory, free-writing and sensory awareness. Free your imagination and access all the brilliant words that you have to share. Writing exercises will focus on key concepts such as image, description and voice.

Creative Writing: A World in Words (Grades 6-8, In-person or Online): Write a work of fiction, a short story or a chapter book. Practice the techniques of writing and storytelling, including how to put a story together, how to be a better writer and how to create characters and settings that make a story come alive. Discuss things like flashbacks, and what to do if you get stuck in a story. Focus on a creative project of your choice.

Improvise It! (Grades 2-12, In-person): Engage in freestyle theatrical play with your peers as you invent characters and scenarios. Build the basics of improvisation and movement as you practice theater arts. Learn to rely on your wits and trust your instincts as you develop your communication skills. This course culminates in a final “Improv Showcase,” of theatrical games and long form presentations.

Chess for Beginners (Grades 2-6, In-person): Learn a game of critical thinking and strategy. This class will concentrate on piece movement and playing the game. As you play, you will learn tactics and how to determine whether you are winning. Discover how to evaluate a position, make a conclusion and execute a game plan.

Checkmate: Chess for Champions (Grades 2-6, In-person): Improve your chess game. Review chess piece movement and how to play the game. Then explore more advanced chess strategies, including: open and closed game openings, middle game tactics, and king and pawn or rook and pawn endings. You will develop your critical thinking skills as you learn how to evaluate a position and execute a game plan.

Girls Engage Technology (Grades 4-5, 6-8, In-person or Online options): Saturday Academy is dedicated to inspiring girls in technology and engineering, where women are currently significantly under-represented (e.g., women receive 19% of computer science bachelor's degrees). Our Girls Engage Technology (GET) program provides positive programming experiences to students who identify as girls to increase their confidence and interest in technology before and during middle school. Classes include Digital Game Design, Basic Coding & Beginning Robotics.

Programming from ‘Scratch' (Grades 4-5, 6-8, In-person or Online): Scratch is a kid-friendly, open-source, popular language developed by MIT’s Media Lab. Students learn the basics of computer game design and how key scientific concepts can be learned and practiced by playing an indie game. As students add more challenges to their games they build reasoning, design and problem-solving skills. No previous experience required.

Programming in Python (Grades 6-12, In-Person or Online): Learn Python®—a powerful, widely used, and versatile programming language—in this fun, hands-on class for new programmers. Design a trivia program and games like guess my number and word jumble all while learning concepts that apply to all programming languages. We recommend that students become familiar with and practice typing skills prior to programming classes--the faster you type, the faster you code! Click here for free online games and tutorials.

Movie Making with Electronic Music: Have you ever wanted to write and score your own short film? Here's your chance to create, collaborate and work with professionals in the field! In the mornings work to develop your movie concepts, write a script and film. In the afternoon focus on post production and sound design. On Friday afternoon enjoy a screening of everyones' creative process.

Becoming a Gamemaster: Ever wanted to play a table-top role-playing game, but couldn’t find anyone who knows how to be a Gamemaster? In this camp, learn the fundamentals of table-top role-playing games, assume the role of Gamemaster, and create your own table-top role-playing game. Prior experience with table-top role-playing games is not required. Learn the concept of these games first, then create a world of your own, to ultimately bring player characters into that world and run a campaign.

Board Game Design Workshop: From gamers to CEOs, penguins to parents--all are making decisions that rely on the principles of Game Theory, a discipline that uses math and logic to determine actions that will secure the best outcomes. Learn how these--and other people and animals--use Game Theory to make decisions. Do you want to learn what gameplay mechanics make your favorite games so fun? In this workshop we'll be putting our problem solving skills to the test by exploring the role of probability, resource management, and game theory in modern game design. Play and discuss a diverse selection of games to help inspire your own designs, then create your own game to share with your friends!

Kinetic Machines: Rube Goldberg (Grades 4-8, In-Person): Engineer a contraption to perform a simple task by using cause and effect to produce a chain reaction. Design and build your contraption using everyday materials. Build a machine that includes an intricate series of imaginative steps while gaining hands-on engineering experience. Along the way, learn about the physics of energy conservation, inertia, forces and electric circuits. Check out http://tinyurl.com/sarubegoldberg to see an incredible example of a Rube Goldberg machine.

LEGO Robotics: (Grades 4-6, 6-8, In-Person): Learn to build and program LEGO EV3 robots that play music, make drawings, sort objects, or guard the yard like a dog, using sensors, motors, and logic programmed in Scratch.

Girls Engage Technology (Grades 4-5, 6-8, In-person or Online options): Saturday Academy is dedicated to inspiring girls in technology and engineering, where women are currently significantly under-represented (e.g., women receive 19% of computer science bachelor's degrees). Our Girls Engage Technology (GET) program provides positive programming experiences to students who identify as girls to increase their confidence and interest in technology before and during middle school. Classes include Digital Game Design, Basic Coding & Beginning Robotics.

Architecture: Experience the process architects use to think creatively about design and then learn to communicate those ideas through words, freehand drawings, and measured drawings — plans, sections, and obliques. You will complete a realistic design project — a “crazy landscape of stairs” — from conceptual sketches through rendered presentation drawings. We will use a collaborative studio format, the basis of architectural education.

Engineering Adventures: Exercise creativity while acquiring critical thinking and teamwork skills! Develop and build wind-powered cars, bridges, solar ovens, planes, earth-friendly sneakers and much more. Learn about a diverse group of engineers and the engineering design process by creating solutions to real world problems.

Emergency Preparedness & Urban Survival (Grades 9 -12, Online): Prepare, respond, survive. A little preparedness can go a long way in an emergency. Learn how to purify water, preserve food, build shelters, learn plant and animal identification and more. Create emergency plans on how to survive during and after natural disasters. When disaster strikes, every youth may need to take on a role.

Water is Life (Grades 6-8, In-Person or Online): How does water sustain you? Life does not exist without water, the substance that covers two-thirds of our planet! Learn about the amazing properties of water, like how does ice float? Understand the bio-chemistry behind proper hydration and the critical role minerals play in our bodies as well as plants, seeds and movement. Students will conduct experiments, tracking their own hydration and performance over the weeks. Explore our local water as well as global issues.

Your Brain on Mindfulness (Grades 7-8, 9-12, In-person or Online): Meditation and mindful movement can help one think clearly. But don’t take our word for it! Practice various modalities and observe the effects. Can your brain actually grow? Study the science behind the practices. Conduct your own self observations and record the results. Explore the other aspects of our nervous system as well. Learn simple, powerful techniques to live with less stress and more ease.

Minds, Brains, & Art Camp: How does your brain construct your lived reality? Why do we perceive the world in the ways that we do? In this hybrid psychology, neuroscience, and art camp, discover how the human brain works and make art inspired by it! Importantly, no previous experience in either art or psychology is required! Learn the basics of perception – how the body’s
senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste) send information to specialized parts of the brain, and how that information is processed to create conscious experience. Use what we’ve learned about our sensory systems to create artworks that reflect our own unique, individual perception of the world. Explore art materials, techniques, and examples from professional artists that allow us to creatively interpret and apply information from the brain sciences. Each day come together to discuss creative problem solving, give constructive artwork feedback, and share brain-based creations.

LEGO Physics (Grades 2-3, 4-5, In-Person): What is physics and how can it help to build things? Discover how simple machines like levers, pulleys and gears work. Construct a bridge and other devices, use gears and cams to add movement. Build your own movable projects and see structural design, mechanical engineering and physics in action.

STEAM Tracks (Grades 2-4, 4-6, In-Person & Online): Explore the mind-boggling mysteries of our universe through science-tech-engineering-arts-math (STEAM). Meet your inner chemist and make polymers and non newtonian fluids. Discover programming logic. Crack secret codes. Show your engineering thinking through design challenges. Experience how art and math are truly connected! These are just a few stops you'll be making on your week long STEAM adventure!

3D Design & Printing (Grades 4-5, 6-8, 9-12, In-Person): Exercise your creativity and explore a wide range of tools and techniques including the 3D printer, CNC router, computer-aided design (CAD), electronic circuit design, dying fabric, weaving and more.

Fun with Physics: Use everyday objects and experiments to become introduced to the wide world of physics! Learn how all parts of everyday life are influenced by physics, the study of energy and matter. Learn about electricity by building a battery out of lemons and limes, investigate the physics of light, color, and rainbows by creating a kaleidoscope. Become an expert in fluids by designing experiments to test buoyancy and pressure, learn why huge whales float but tiny coins sink. Use the concepts of energy and momentum to launch catapults and build air-powered cars and hovercrafts!

SAT Prep (Grades 10-12, In-person or Online): Attention college-bound juniors and seniors: maximize your SAT scoring potential. Learn powerful test-taking techniques and strategies for improving your score. High scores on the SAT can help with admittance to the college of your choice and increase the size of potential scholarships. Get ready for the two required sections of the SAT: math and evidence-based reading and writing. For the math section, you will review the basic concepts of algebra and geometry. This review is especially important for students who are currently taking upper-level math and have been away from the basics for a while. Additionally, problems from third-year college preparatory math (including exponential growth, absolute value and functional notation) will be covered to give you an edge on the more advanced problems. Preparation for the critical reading section stresses vocabulary, reading comprehension and grammar skills. Click here for upcoming test dates.

ACT Prep (Grades 10-12, In-person or Online): The ACT is a widely accepted college entrance exam. Many students' strengths are better reflected on the ACT than the SAT as it more closely aligns with school curriculum. The ACT tests reading, math, science, and English, with an optional writing portion. There are clear differences between the ACT and the SAT, including: four answer choices instead of five for most sections, no penalty for wrong answers, and deeper questions requiring prior knowledge.

Study Skills: Make the best use of your study time. Learn neuroscience-based techniques for studying more effectively, including note-taking, memorization and problem-solving. Explore new ways to approach analytical projects and practice techniques for test-taking and managing stress. Understand how cognitive psychology can help you achieve your potential in the classroom and beyond.

Comic Book & Graphic Novel (Grades 2-12, In-person & Online): Comic storytelling combines both writing and drawing to tell tales that span every genre. Create your very own comic that tells a unique, interesting and personal story. Learn techniques of professional cartoonists from narrative development to layout, penciling, inking, coloring, and lettering a final product. Communicate effectively through words and art.

Creative Arts Lab (Grades 1-12, In-person or Online): Use art, improv, and writing to see where your creativity takes you.

Digital Photography (Grades 6-12, In-person or Online): Photography is a wonderful way to discover the world around us. Beginning students learn the basic controls on digital cameras and tips to enhance pictures using different functions such as ISO, aperture and shutter speed. They discuss composition, lighting and perspective and learn how to best capture an image regardless of the lighting or weather conditions. In addition to improving camera skills, students learn how to save, edit and print their photographs.

Drawing and Sketching (Grades 1-12, In-Person or Online): Using pencil, pen and markers students will create portraits of animals, people, plants and other subjects. Techniques for shading, contouring and perspective will be introduced and step-by-step instruction on how to draw will be given. Students will create a final piece of art to share with family and friends.

Electronic Music Production (Grades 6-12 In-person or Online): Get the tools and learn the basics of making your own music. Learn what makes up a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Cultivate an understanding of drum production, synthesis, sound design, music theory, songwriting and sampling. Create songs and beats inspired by genres like House, Hip-Hop, Lo-fi, Dubstep, Drum and Bass, and more! Students will be using Reaper, which works on Mac, Windows, and Linux systems. Intermediate Electronic Music Production is an option as a follow-up class for students who want to go further.

Sound Design/Synthesis (Grades 6-12, In-person or Online): Explore the different elements of a synthesizer and how to create the sounds you want.

LEGO Photo Comics (Grades 2-6, In-person): When you play with LEGO, you are building a story. In this class, tap into the stories made through play, make them visible, and tangible in the form of Photo Comics. First, learn how to make scenes with LEGO bricks, pose LEGO Minifigures, and photograph each scene. Then, use digital art programs to construct a comic and bring the story to life!

Clothing Upcycling: In this hands-on studio art class, youth learn, create, and gain new skills including, design, stitching, fabric creation and construction, decorative repair techniques, and finishing utilizing pre-loved clothing. Enjoy relaxed art-making time as well as time to share ideas and discuss experiences around fabric and fiber in the context of nature, environmentalism, and history. Deconstruct, create, collaborate, embellish, flow, weave, sculpt with fabric, and connect!