Using saws, drills and glue guns, kids in Salinas get creative -- while learning how to apply scientific principles.

Voices of students rise above the rrzzz, rrzzz sounds of drills and saws in an improvised area with several tables and a shed at El Sausal Middle School in Salinas. About two dozen students, all working on different projects at the same time, are absorbed in various tasks – painting wood in different colors, carving or sawing.

At first glance it looks like an arts and crafts setting, but it’s more than that: Students here not only learn how to build things, they also learn the scientific rules behind them, such as which angles they need to cut wood for stability, how to arrange and install circuits, the reaction of mixing baking soda and vinegar.

Twice a week, El Sausal Middle students learn about physics, chemistry, biology and other concepts they can apply to the projects they are working on, which range from assembling small motorized cars to building explosive volcanoes, repairing their bikes or constructing scooters.

This is the Salinas Community Science Workshop, which started in May and, since then, has evolved quickly. Kids went from asking questions about what project they should do to leading them. Curt Gabrielson, director of Salinas Community Science Workshop, says participants were shocked at the beginning to learn the projects they would make were totally up to them.

Luis Pinedo Ante, 13, has attended the workshop for the past few months. He likes science and says that here, he has learned about electrical currents and carpentry. Pinedo doesn’t view a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) as his future path, but he says it’s fun to learn how to manipulate materials and understand how nature works.

Before the SCSW started, Gabrielson organized several pilot programs over the past five years at Cesar Chavez Library, Alisal Family Resource Center and Monterey County Office of Education. At the beginning of 2021, they got a $50,000 seed grant to start the science workshop in Salinas. The SCSW also serves several elementary schools in Alisal Unified School District – Fremont, MLK and Jesse G. Sanchez – by inviting students to take field trips over to the existing space.

For Gabrielson, “science is another way to understand the world.” Most students learn science concepts from books, but the way to really internalize it, he says, comes with “the opportunity to use their hands and make the observations and experience for themselves.”

“We want kids to have those opportunities,” he adds. “It’s very difficult to find a shop class in middle school.” (When he was growing up, Gabrielson says, all middle schools had one.)

SCSW is part of the Global Alliance of Community Science Workshops that started 30 years ago with a mission to provide opportunities for low-income families to explore science and get creative. This is the second in Monterey County; the first, a free-standing nonprofit, is in Greenfield.

After about five months of operating, the workshop will celebrate with a grand opening on Saturday, Oct. 16. They will show mobile science displays from neighboring workshops in San Francisco, Fresno, Watsonville and Greenfield. There will also be activities for kids and adults, such as trying out tools, making projects and learning about fossils.

Ramon Jesus Fregoso is a student at CSU Monterey Bay studying biology with a concentration in education. He is an intern at SCSW and helps students with their projects. He’s glad these kids have more opportunities than he had growing up. He wants to prepare them to potentially pursue a STEM career pathway, eventually becoming a scientist or an engineer – and also, of course, to help them have fun along the way. SCSW is prominent and popular on campus, which is a good thing, he says, so that “students are aware of the resources that they have in their own community.”

SALINAS COMMUNITY SCIENCE WORKSHOP’s grand opening celebration happens 10am-2pm Saturday, Oct. 16. Sports fields of El Sausal Middle School, 1155 E. Alisal St., Salinas; parking on Eucalyptus Street. 228-9861, curt.gabrielson@gmail.com