Defining characteristics of a School Site Community Science
Workshop (CSW):
1.
Easily
accessible to students with science exhibits, models, tools and
materials
2.
User-generated
content and local educators / volunteers foster familiarity and connection to
culture and place
3.
After
school workshop is open-ended and student-driven: A project or challenge
is introduced and collaboration is encouraged but as much as possible, students
choose what they want to do and how they’re going to do it, what
questions they want to ask and how they’re going to answer them.
School Site CSWs are great for after-school programs, family science
nights, guest speakers, in school hands-on science lessons and community
events.
Exhibits and Projects:
The scientific processes of observation and discovery are at the
heart of any CSW activity, be it sewing a purse, re-wiring an electric car,
comparing mammalian femurs, or playing with a bicycle wheel gyroscope.
You might find some of the following when you walk in the door to a CSW:
· Electronics
– including materials for building simple circuits, soldering, voltmeters, and
oscilloscopes.
· Logic
and topology puzzles, made in the Workshop or makeable there.
· Magnets
and electromagnets.
· Sewing
and needlework – machines, knitting, simple looms, a variety of cloth, etc.
· Recycled
wood and simple hand held woodworking tools for building frames and bases for a
variety of projects.
· Biology
exhibits, such as fossils, bones, and plants.
· Geology
exhibits, with specimens of many kinds of rock and maps of local geologic
formations.
· Garden
with planter boxes, indoor sprouting/growing areas, and/or plants in pots.
· Microscopes
with slides and other specimens to view.
· Craft
materials of all kinds – popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, paint, etc.
· Recycled
materials of all kinds – bottles, cans, plastic containers, bags, film cans,
pvc pipes, etc.
· Basic
tools– hot glue guns, saws, hammers, screwdrivers, cordless drills, vices and
clamps, etc.
· Light
exhibit– different colored and shaped lenses, gels, and bulbs to experiment
with light in a darkened room or box.
· Physics
exhibits, such wind tube, labyrinth irregular shaped mirrors.
· Musical
instruments, made by kids and the kind you buy at the store
· Telescope
and star maps for evening events
Resources
Mission Science Workshop
in San Francisco http://www.missionscienceworkshop.org/ Second
Saturdays – open workshop the 2nd Saturday of every month from
10 to 3; Excelsior Science Workshop is open the 3rd Saturday of every month - call before you go!
WHY a School Site CSW?
Making Science Matter:
Collaborations Between Informal Science Education Organizations and
Schools
·
HOW TO HELP
We absolutely can use
your help!
- Make and donate a model to your school workshop - try one of these
- Donations of funds or supplies
- Old toys & electronics for the 'Take-Apart Table'
- Turntable
- Plastic bottle CAPS - no bottles needed at this time,
just the caps for wheels please
- Sewing machine and scrap material
- Scrap wood and woodworking tools
- Recycled material for the 'Make-It Station'
- Oscilloscope
- Musical instruments
- Glue gun refill sticks, construction paper, masking
tape
- Knitting needles, crochet hooks, yarn
- Recycled cardboard tp & paper towel rolls
- Copper wire, circuit board components - LEDs buzzers,
motors etc.
- Volunteers who are fingerprinted, or are willing to get
fingerprinted for MUSD and available to help out Wednesday afternoons
- Physical or interactive exhibits that inspire wonder
and creativity - we love the homemade ones made from recycled material!
Please fill out the
contact form on this blog or reach out to Ellen Concepcion if you'd like to
donate or have any questions, suggestions or just something nice to say.
We are now a 501c3 California Public Benefit Corporation!! Your tax-deductible donations are now being accepted!
Checks can be made payable to NEW LEAF COLLABORATIVE and sent to
New Leaf Collaborative
P.O. Box 131
Martinez, CA 94553.
You will receive a thank you and a receipt with our Federal tax ID number for your records.
"Science doesn't
teach anything, experience teaches it."
-Richard Feynman
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