A CSW is a community space where kids and families create projects of their imaginations, do science activities, and explore freely. CSWs are overflowing with scrap materials and tools, interactive exhibits, specimens, and project models, free for all to access.
CSW’s are dedicated to providing hands-on science programs to youth from under-resourced communities and schools. Our goal is to inspire these students to become lifelong explorers, experimenters, and creators.
Community Science Workshop programs feature both unstructured and guided activities, where children explore at their own pace, and let their curiosity guide them.
Our students dissect squid, build tortilla presses in the woodshop, crack open real fossils, construct solar-powered mini-cars, experiment with chemistry, take care of snakes, fix bikes, and so much more!
CSWs provide the tools, materials, and instructor-support for any project imaginable. Kids and families also freely explore our collections and interactive exhibits.
A CSW is a free community resource for children and families – right in their neighborhoods.
There are now 12 Community Science Workshops in 11 cities across 5 states. Some CSWs operate multiple sites in their areas.
Each year, CSW’s collectively impact 45,000 individual students and their families nationwide.
CSWs seek to expand their impact each year, and new sites are in the works!
We now have 12 Community Science Workshops! Each CSW runs independently, and many have multiple sites in their areas.
CSWs are linked through the GACSW, sharing resources and collaborating.
Mission Science Workshop (MSW) is the flagship Community Science Workshop, and was started in founder Dan Sudran’s garage in 1991. Now, MSW operates 3 workshop locations in the Mission, Excelsior, and Bayview Districts of San Francisco, CA. MSW is fiscally sponsored by Community Initiative.
The Fresno CSW opened in 1994 under the City of Fresno and has been based in various city parks throughout the decades since. Aside from many school-day and after-school programs, Fresno CSW developed extensive outdoor environmental programs including camping, snow-boarding and white-water canoeing. Currently sponsored by the GACSW, it is seeking a new space in the right location.
(559) 569-7704
The Watsonville Science Workshop operates as a division under the City of Watsonville. Established in 1997, it serves the greater Pajaro Valley with a drop-in site, a mobile unit, and several satellite sites.
Science My Way branched out of the City of Watsonville and started programming in 2023. SMW runs after-school CSW programs at most schools in the area and conducts large events with a Physics Bus RV full of hands-on exhibits, more than 20 animals, and multiple high-interest tinkering activities. Science My Way is fiscally sponsored by Community Initiatives.
The Houston Science Workshop was launched in 2002 from within the Houston Children’s museum with support from the San Francisco CSW. Located in Edison Middle School, it serves Houston’s East End with school-day and after-school sessions for both free and focused tinkering, exploration and engineering activities.
The Greenfield Community Science Workshop was established in 2011, operating under the City of Greenfield, CA. The Greenfield CSW serves several nearby cities and towns, runs several mobile science programs, and orchestrates a bike repair shop serving both Greenfield and other sites.
Free Science Workshop exists as a nonprofit organization called Free Science Inc. in Ithaca, NY. FSW staff were the originators of the Physics Bus – an eccentric science museum on wheels, with over two dozen hands-on exhibits on board! FSW’s drop-in space in Ithaca is open regularly for tinkering and interaction with exhibits.
The Pittsburgh CSW opened in 2020 (under the pandemic!) and now operates two locations – North Side and Mckees Rocks. Pittsburgh CSW provides free science programming, based on tinkering and exploration, including plants, pigeons, fish and reptiles, to Pittsburgh’s youth at these sites and multiple schools and community organizations.
Salinas Community Science Workshop opened in 2021 and served the community around El Sausal middle school for four years before losing this excellent space. Currently it is searching for a new space and operating various programs out of its SS WoW (Salinas Science Workshop on Wheels), a full-sized city bus converted to include workbenches, power tools and exhibits. Salinas CSW is fiscally sponsored by Community Initiatives.
Contra Costa Science Workshop is part of the nonprofit organization New Leaf Collaborative, and opened in June 2024. NLC does CSW-type programming at many schools in different communities around Contra Costa County with a strong emphasis on community gardening and ecology. CCSW is currently working towards re-opening regular drop-in workshop hours.
NoCo Science Workshop in Fort Collins, Co is the newest CSW! NoCo’s hosted its first program with a community creative building day in November 2025. NoCo is fiscally sponsored by the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center, and is seeking a permanent site and collaboration with local schools.
CSWs create opportunities for exploring and making, with the most basic materials and methods. Hand tools, recycled materials, and “low-tech” are everywhere in our workshops!
In a CSW, opportunities for discovery through tinkering are more important than a final product or set of skills.
Our students build working wooden scooters, solder electric circuits, make cardboard puppets, take apart appliances to see how they work, and create projects of their imaginations. In our space, science and engineering underlie all of these activities!
CSWs complement traditional education. We give authentic experiences that schools often do not have the resources to give.
We share our projects, philosophy and best practices with teachers to help them be more effective. Some CSW sites provide programming directly to classrooms, who attend the workshop for both guided & unstructured activities during the school-day.
CSWs help kids engage with school and find success beyond the formal system. Through our programs, we want to give each student the chance to discover their own interests, curiosity, and excitement for learning about the world.
CSWs focus on exploring the natural world, including traditional areas like animals, plants, ecosystems and earth science, but also physics, chemistry and astronomy.
We focus on areas of science and technology that are critical to justice and a more inclusive society, like humans’ environmental impact, and sustainable energy.
We encourage curiosity and self-guided exploration that maximizes discovery – in our workshop spaces and gardens, and out in nature.
For CSWs, science is a social mission. We focus on serving kids in communities that may not have equal access to well-resourced schools and science programs.
Every CSW focuses on the learning that matters for their community, to help kids get an effective, meaningful, holistic education.
CSWs offer a safe community space where students and families can learn. Helping kids (and adults!) learn how to interact within the community is more important than any finished product or learned skills.
There are many ways to be part of the CSW family.