Middle School Intersession 2025

I will talk about why there is often a shift which states are "swing states" over time, as well as how politicians choose certain topics & themes to focus on in their campaigns based on what is politically viable. Example questions include: How did Barack Obama carry several states that are now considered strongly Republican? Aside from purely just changes in public opinion, why do political parties shift their political stances over time? This session will be taught in a non-partisan fashion and is intended to teach students about the salience of political issues and how campaigning works from a calculated standpoint.

Needle felting is a fun way to create fuzzy soft sculptures using wool and special felting tools. We'll start with flat images that can be turned into pins or patches, then move into 3-D projects. You can felt your favorite food, animals, or abstract art - the sky's the limit!

Challenge yourself against international top table tennis players! Come and join the fun of playing ping pong! Engage in exciting drills, enjoy fun challenges, and have a chance to win small prizes from the USA National Training Center.

Our team of pro coaches is eager to guide you through the basics of this incredible and affordable sport. Don't miss your opportunity to learn from the best and uncover all the secrets of one of the most energy-intensive sports in the world!

Of the more than 380 languages used in the United States, only one of these consists of hand gestures, body movements and facial expressions, rather than the spoken word. Get a 'feel' for American Sign Language and Deaf culture as we learn the ASL alphabet, play games, sing and sign our way through this exciting hands-on workshop! You will learn enough signs to chat with your friends from across the room ...without making a sound!

Museums curate and display human remains in order to research the past and to educate the public. But it has come to light that many of the individuals on display might not have considered the museum to be their ideal final resting place. Adding in individual and indigenous voices problematises the concept of curation of human remains, but many archaeologists see us on a path we can’t retreat from without radically changing the field. Museum visitors also expect to see skeletons, and most find it part of their education - and often inspires them to go into research of medicine. Additionally, ancient cultures and modern society have radically different views of the afterlife, consent, and burial practices that are often at odds with each other. In this session we’ll learn about and debate these differing views.

Key questions: How can we as curators and archaeologists balance these different value systems? Do the dead have a voice, and what would they argue for? What are some of the arguments for and against keeping human remains on a case-by-case basis? How can we develop more complex arguments than "I wouldn't want that to happen to my body" when all of our ideas of our bodies are different?

Live Action Role Playing (LARP), players pretend to be someone else, living in a different time or place, and acting out events that might happen in that world. Many of these games involve battles, and so LARPers use safe, padded props that look like weapons to act out the combat. Unlike in a play where everyone has certain lines to say and the story is set, in LARP, the players each act out a certain person and make their own decisions for that person as the game evolves. Live Action Role Playing is a tremendous teaching tool and capable of dynamic, physically driven learning that transcends the usual boundaries of standard education. Due to the interactive, dramatic, hands on methods used in LARP, teaching is often effortless and fun. This class begins with basic battle training and rules of combat, followed by character creation and entry into the game world of Roekron, a game world continuously run for over two decades in the Bay Area and which currently has leagues all across the region with weekly and monthly meetups. Students will have a character at the end of this class that can be taken and used in any of the other Roekron League events they choose and may continue their story at future events if they wish.

Topics Covered:
- First Five Battle Rules
- Equipment Sets and Weapons
- Armor System of AV
- Basic Spell and Skill Types
- Overview of the Classes
- Character Species
- Character Backstory
- Alignments
- Flow of Events
- Playing a Monster or NPC
- Quests and Role Playing
- Magical Items and Money Cards
- Completing a Mission
- Transfer of Characters to other leagues

Check out these videos to get a sense of what we'll be doing!
Intro (2min)
The Regulars LARPing (SF Chronicle)- 
https://youtu.be/YdnqN-TcBq4

Core Rules-(13min)
The First Five Rules- 
https://youtu.be/K7PVm6rw2H8
Armor Zones- (3min)
https://youtu.be/N67hPOenaHU
Color Tags- (5min)
https://youtu.be/XIbgvo-5nnA

-Bonus Material-
TEDx Talk on LARPing with Kids and Teens- (10min)
https://youtu.be/L6xl-qYRHco

Sebastopol Times Article 2024
(10min read)

In this class we will be going all out with Improv games! Even if you have had improv before we will be exploring games we have never played. Quickly learning the basics of the games and jumping into creating characters, playing games, and having fun.

In this half-day comedy writing workshop, middle school students will explore the exciting world of stand-up comedy, skits, and sketches. Through fun activities, group collaborations, and creative brainstorming, students will learn how to craft jokes, build characters, and create funny scenarios from everyday life. Whether they want to write their own stand-up routine or collaborate on a hilarious sketch with friends, this workshop encourages creativity and expression. By the end of the session, participants will have the chance to share their work in a supportive environment while gaining confidence in their comedic voice.

The old, abandoned water park, Splashopolis, has been taken over by vampires! Locals have been going missing, animals have become dangerous around the park, and the slides have been twisted into the dreaded Castle Hydrocula. You and your comrades call yourselves UPDN (Undead Pursuit, Destruction, and Neutralize), and it’s your job to flush them out. Your plan is to get the innocents out safe while taking down the vampires with your tools and your wits. It’s a hot day at the waterpark, but do you and your team really have the advantage against this so-called Hydrocula and his vampire minions?

This game is played with the Everyday Heroes Tabletop RPG. The game uses the D&D 5th Edition System. If you know D&D, you know this game. Otherwise its easy to learn!

We're look at an interesting real math problem relating to the United States Congress. Why does Alabama have 7 representatives? It turns out the answer isn't as simple as you'd think, and it involves some division, some fascinating mathematical paradoxes, and some incredible history. Where else can you discuss Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and square roots all in one 75 minute session?

Learn the art of jewelry making in this hands-on workshop! Students will discover the basics of beading, crimping, and finishing techniques while completing a custom bracelet from start to finish. Along the way, they’ll get an introduction to pliers, jewelry-making terms, and materials. This fun and creative session is perfect for anyone who loves to design and wear unique accessories!

Let’s cook breakfast together! In this class, students will create sweet and savory crepes, pancakes, made-to-order omelettes, and hot cocoa. No prior cooking experience required. Eat your culinary creations!

Cross stitch is a fun and easy style of embroidery made up of X shaped stitches to create a pixelated design. You’ll get to choose a design, learn how to read the chart, stitch your design and a border, and create an adorable bookmark. Feel free to bring artwork to transform into a custom cross stitch pattern. No experience necessary.

Imagine that you shoot a ball at a 45 degree angle from the bottom left corner of a pool table. What will happen? In this activity, we'll explore a variety of questions related to this basic set-up and discover how the answers differ based on the dimensions of the table.

Challenge yourself against international top table tennis players! Come and join the fun of playing ping pong! Engage in exciting drills, enjoy fun challenges, and have a chance to win small prizes from the USA National Training Center.

Our team of pro coaches is eager to guide you through the basics of this incredible and affordable sport. Don't miss your opportunity to learn from the best and uncover all the secrets of one of the most energy-intensive sports in the world!

Join us in the food lab for “The Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment''. First, we’ll examine the role of flour, leavening agents, sugar, eggs, fats, time, and temperature and how they work together to create delicious baked goods. After baking the control recipe, students will break into teams where they will change ingredients, proportions, and ratios in the recipe to see how it affects the cookie’s flavor, texture, spread and color. Be prepared for a lot of taste testing – and homemade hot cocoa to accompany the cookies!

Have you ever had to write a five-page paper, but only filled up four pages? This workshop will teach you how to write a computer program to solve this problem! We’ll discuss strategies and algorithms for generating “random text”. Then, using the Python programming language, we’ll write a program that does what we want. This workshop would be appropriate for all levels of programming experience, from beginning to more advanced.

In this class we will be going all out with Improv games! Even if you have had improv before we will be exploring games we have never played. Quickly learning the basics of the games and jumping into creating characters, playing games, and having fun.

George Harrison wrote, “Everyone should have and play a ‘UKE.’ It’s so simple to carry with you and it is one instrument you can’t play and not laugh!” He carried his uke with him and gave away ukes to friends whenever he could. “Everyone I know who is into the ukulele is ‘crackers,’ so get yourself a few and enjoy yourselves,” he said. Good advice from a Beatle. This course offers an introduction to playing the ukulele. Geared toward both complete neophytes and experienced beginners, the course will teach students the basics of uke chords and strumming. A dozen or so chords will be covered as well as a few strum patterns and basic fingerpicking. Basic chart reading and rhythm studies will also be discussed. No experience required.

This class is an immersive journey into the art of still life drawing. In this class, we will delve into the silent narratives that everyday objects can tell. Much like a poet finds meaning in every word, we will discover the beauty and stories concealed within the objects that surround us.

Students will learn basic drawing techniques, and work with a variety of drawing materials. We will look at examples from art history for inspiration and guidance. Through the careful arrangement of objects, lighting, and composition, we will uncover the beauty in the mundane.

If you’re someone who loves to draw, this is a great class for you. If you’re someone who is afraid to draw, this is also a great class for you! Come and learn the basics, or continue to hone your skills. You'll be encouraged to unleash your inner poet, and create visual verses with pen and pencil!

You may have heard about Jackie Robinson and his breaking of the color barrier in baseball, but have you heard the history of the Negro Leagues and how baseball was segregated in the first place? Can you name some women baseball players who were also Negro League stars (yes, they could play baseball in the Negro Leagues even if not for Major League Baseball)? Did you know that baseball was one of the incarceration camp sports for Japanese Americans during World War II?

If these questions sound interesting and you'd like to learn more, please come join a discussion about the history of baseball in America that you may not have heard before, focusing on the Negro Leagues and baseball in the wartime incarceration camps. We'll be using books that involve primary sources to build our knowledge of this part of our country's history, and think about how this impacts sports as we watch and understand them today, with a focus on sports as sources of resistance and joy in 2025 and beyond.

Imagine that you shoot a ball at a 45 degree angle from the bottom left corner of a pool table. What will happen? In this activity, we'll explore a variety of questions related to this basic set-up and discover how the answers differ based on the dimensions of the table.

Explore the calming and mesmerizing art of mandala painting! Students will create intricate designs using dots and patterns, discovering how symmetry, color, and shapes come together to form beautiful works of art. This workshop promotes focus, creativity, and a sense of accomplishment, leaving students with a stunning piece to take home.

Dive into the exciting world of printmaking! In this workshop, students will learn to design and carve their own custom stamps and use them to create unique prints on paper or fabric. This tactile, hands-on activity sparks creativity and introduces artistic techniques that students can use long after the session ends.