Thank you for your interest in starting a Community Science Workshop! You won’t regret it. Those of us who have been working on Community Science Workshops (CSWs) for years or decades are true believers, not in a cult-like manner, but rather as a result of witnessing firsthand thousands of kids and families drinking in wonders and reveling in their own creations and discoveries. At the soul level, we believe that CSWs offer essential learning opportunities for kids and families that would otherwise be inaccessible. We believe CSWs hold keys to a happy life, and make the world a better place for humans to inhabit.

We sometimes say that it just takes a welcoming space full of interesting junk and supportive staff, and you’ve got yourself a Community Science Workshop! While that’s an inspiring and encouraging way to look at it—and not entirely wrong—you should also understand that it’s not easy to start a CSW that will take root and grow within a community. Like anything with good roots, building a sustainable CSW takes long-term concerted effort, and you can expect to have a load of fun along the way!

You are welcome to come to any of our sites and talk to any of the staff and participants to form your own conclusions about the best way to establish and operate a CSW. Knowing that this may be inconvenient, however, we’ve put some of the basic information here in this manual for easy access. It is meant to be a reference guide, and the inclusion of as much relevant information as possible has been prioritized over clever presentation, including the use of lists and tables versus extended prose. Feel free to skip around and search for what you need.

It is a work in progress! Consider it an extended blurt of everything we have learned over the decades we’ve been around. There may be gaps and some overlaps, with topics dealt with in more than one section. We will add to it as more comes to light. May it serve to inspire and inform your quest!

(And, by the way, after you read a bit here and grasp our unique nature, if you know of a space anywhere in the world where this kind of environment exists, please let us know; we want to connect with them!)

A note on names: In this document, each CSW is referred to by its proper name, and also by the city it resides in. Thus Ithaca CSW and Free Science Workshop are the same entity. So far, there are no cities with multiple CSWs, so there is no ambiguity. That said, the situation in San Francisco, the original CSW, can be confusing where Mission Science Workshop is both the proper name of the organization and the name of one of their three sites. Watsonville is also complex with a united group of people working in two separate entities for unfortunate bureaucratic reasons. For details on all sites, check the final chapter: 2025 Snapshots of Current CSWs within GACSW.

If you have any comments, please contact us at admin@communityscienceworkshops.org.

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This manual was written by Curt Gabrielson under the guidance of the of the CSW directors in 2025. It is published by the CSW umbrella organization the Global Alliance of Community Science Workshops. GACSW is a 501c3 nonprofit organization with a mission to support, promote and propagate CSWs.

Curt was supported to write the CSW Manual through the generosity of the late Paul Doherty by virtue of his lovely wife Ellen Henson.

© 2025 Global Alliance of Community Science Workshops