On school days classes visit the Workshop where they explore our exhibits and then do a hands-on project related to the Next Generation Science Standards for their grade level. Teachers accompany their students and learn hands-on pedagogy as well as science concepts. We’ve started with five schools nearby El Sausal Middle School so they can walk over, but hope to expand to many other schools in East Salinas. 

Fourth grade projects are Newton’s Cradle with marbles and yarn, a salt water battery lighting an LED, and a motorized wave machine. Fifth grade projects are chemical reactions with slime and oobleck, an experimental planter, and a sun-earth-moon model. Sixth grade projects are a working model hand, a working thermometer, and experiments with carbon-dioxide. Each of the participating teachers also gets classroom kits to carry out three other hands-on science activities with their students and gets trained on how to present these.