South Washington County Schools Community Education

Gopher Steam is back for the 2025 -2026 with 24 brand new STEM classes for kindergarten and up.  Come sign up for some serious STEM fun with Gopher STEAM this winter. 

Topics we will explore include: 

Feel the Pressure: Don’t underestimate the air around you. All of your life, you have had thousands of pounds of air flowing around you and pressing in on every square inch. We will explore the power of this air pressure as we crush cans and send mysterious vortexes flying across the room. We will even make a mini vortex generator to take home.

Spy Tech: Use your STEAM skills to learn about the clandestine technology used by secret agents. How do spies encrypt and use everyday items to pass secret messages? How do they use disguises to hide their identity? Are the spy gadgets from the movies fact or fiction? We will learn all about that and even play Q and make our own Spy Gadget.

Kitchen Chem: Chemistry is all around us, especially in our kitchen. We will learn how to use an enzyme in yeast to make a mountain of foam. We will explore the power of acids and bases as we investigate the pH of everyday drinks. We can even make our own oobleck to experiment with!

Movie Magic: Ready! Set! Action! Let us embark on a journey through time as we explore the history of motion pictures. How did a wager by a railroad mogul and former governor of California inspire the Luimiere brothers to invent the motion picture? How do they use models and the knowledge of perspective to make volcanoes erupt, spaceships fly and monsters come to life? We will even make our own phenakistoscope to make our drawings move!

Awesome Atoms: Never trust an atom. They make up everything! We will learn how protons, neutrons, and electrons come together to make the atoms all around us. We will explore the periodic table and learn how the 94 elements found in nature combine to form all of the molecules that build our universe. We will even make some sweet atom models to take home!

Super Sonic Sounds: Let’s explore the science of sound. We will make some waves with tuning forks, boom wackers and lasers to discover how vibrations make the sound waves we hear. How do we hear sound? We will explore how our ear detects and our mind perceives sound. We will learn about amplitude, frequency and wavelength as we make some waves of our own. We will even make an amazing device called a hanger banger to continue our exploration of sound waves.

Use the Force: Or should I say use the mass times acceleration. We will find out all about forces as we delve into Newton’s second and third law of motion in this class. We will experience firsthand how speed, velocity and acceleration get things moving. We will make our own acceleration toy to take home.

Optical illusions: Don’t believe your eyes! This class explores how we can hack our vision and fool our mind to make some amazing optical illusions. How do some simple images trick our brain into seeing what is not there? How can we use forced perspective to make two things of the same size look so different? How can simple patterns confuse our mind into seeing motion where it isn’t? We will even make our own optical illusions to take home to entertain and perplex our parents.