What if every kid had access to a real workshop? Like the ones in the corners of garages across the country: a basic array of tools, bits and pieces of hardware, piles of scrap materials and fasteners, plus stacks of unsorted boxes containing the remnants of projects gone by. Visualize also that the workshop held a few musical instruments-guitars, a keyboard, some percussion-as well as art supplies: markers, paints, clay, and the tools to shape it, ribbons glitter, beads, fabric, etc. n top of this, picture the workshop having a few hands-on exhibits to explore and manipulate-a vacuum chamber
Community Science Workshops: Beginning a National Movement is an extension of a successful, NSF-funded project that created a network of community science centers in California. The San Francisco State University will now take this successful venture to a national level by working with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) to establish a new Community Science Workshop (CSW) 8-10 in underserved communities over the next four years. Once sites are selected, CSW directors participate in an intensive two-week training program. This is followed by visits by site mentors, and ongoing support through the WWW and other media, which contributes to the establishment and eventual sustainability of the centers. Each site partners with larger, established museums and science centers locally to gain much needed assistance with exhibits and education programs. Community Science Workshops contain permanent exhibit space, a workshop area for student projects and classroom/storage space. They serve a variety of audiences through after school, family, school and summer science programs. Potential locations include Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and the District of Columbia.