Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
Outside the Cesar Chavez Library in Salinas there was a buzz of activity next to a vibrantly colored bus emblazoned with the words: “Salinas Community Science Workshop on….Wheels.”
A couple of teenagers intently studied a bike hoisted onto a repair stand, a young boy donned a pair of safety glasses and on the nearby lawn a man and his son launched a paper rocket.
Standing in the middle of it all was Arturo Sanchez Jr. of the Salinas Community Science Workshop, which brings their converted bus full of tools and project ideas to the library parking lot from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. every Thursday.
“We have a variety of projects people can do,” Sanchez said. “We have an electronics project, a sound project where they can make a basic instrument or a woodworking project.”
Participants can also learn bike maintenance and repair and work on their own bike or a bike that is donated to the nonprofit. And if they fix a donated bike, they get to keep it.
“They are learning how to repair a bike and getting a bike at the same time,” Sanchez said.
Alisal High School: Largest high school in Salinas celebrates groundbreaking of new 2-story building
A mobile workshop of hands-on tools and gadgets
Inside the bus in the main project area are counters lined with bins filled with screws, batteries, electronic parts, washers, drill bits, all the random components and tools you would find in a repair shop.
There are also pieces of wood, wire, colored beads, popsicle sticks and pom-poms like you would find in an arts and crafts class.
Then there are the glue guns and power tools all available for participants to explore and engage with under the watchful eyes of Sanchez and his team of interns.
“This is an area where kids can come in, see what they want to do and we can make it,” Sanchez said. “And if they don’t have an idea of what to do, we also have set projects they can work on.”
One of the projects that day was creating a light stick using a piece of foam and an LED strip.
More: Epicenter celebrates 10 years of making a difference in the lives of Salinas youth
“They wire it up themselves with a battery and they make their own switch and then they decorate it,” Sanchez said.
Another project is a thumb piano crafted from a small wooden box and bit of metal.
“When they mount the metal on the box they can flick it and it vibrates and ring so they have this little instrument that they made from scratch,” Sanchez said.
The joy of making things
Inside the bus, one of the science workshop interns, Guillermo Hernandez, 18, watched over a family as they perused the bins of bits and pieces.
Hernandez has been working at the science workshop’s home base at El Sausal Middle School, for nearly a year. He wanted to be a mechanic when he was younger and said he likes doing the hands-on activities and projects he gets to advise on at the workshop.
“There is a lot of creativity and brainstorming,” Hernandez said. “You’re not just working with one mindset, you are thinking with different perspectives.”
Being able to create and work with tools is a fundamental component of the science workshop.
“Kids are learning how to use tools, how to use their hands,” Sanchez said. “In a world full of screens and digital media they get to use their hands and make physical things that they can touch, and they get to learn new skills.”
An artful legacy: Young musicians focus of public murals in Salinas
Learning fine motor skills in a digital world
Director of the Salinas Community Science Workshop, Curt Gabrielson, has been doing this work for 30 years. He started the science workshop in nearby Watsonville over 20 years ago.
During this time, Gabrielson said he has seen a lot of changes in the kids doing hands-on activities.
“There has been a steady decline of both the skills and the perceived need to learn the skills,” he said. “Essentially, we have to back up and start at the beginning; no assumptions of any skills.”
What this means in a practical sense, he explains, is that kids, accustomed to operating in a digital environment will try to do what they do online in real life, which doesn’t translate.
“Digital skills can actually reduce hands-on skills: we see kids trying strategies in real life they’ve found successful on the screen, say at Minecraft, and quickly finding discouragement,” he said. “One could say they have ‘negative experience,’ that is, less than no experience.”
A survey of K-third grade teachers conducted by Education Week last year, found that students had more difficulty with fine motor skills such as using scissors, lacing their shoes and using pens and crayons than in years passed.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, Gabrielson points out. It just takes a bit of time, and access to the type of hands-on activities you can find at the science workshop.
“The good news is that many of these skills don’t need to be taught; just the opportunity to tinker around with tools and materials can lead to a lot of skills,” he said. “We trumpet the value of the skills, as well as the great satisfaction to be had from making something or making something work.”
In a world of on-demand entertainment, how do kids respond to analog pursuits? Gabrielson said most times, it’s not an issue.
“When kids get the opportunity to use tools and make things, or explore things with the instruments of science, almost all of them jump at the chance,” he said, adding that he and the rest of the science workshop team routinely see three levels of response from kids having success making or fixing something.
“First, they’re happy, with a visceral, no-need-to-explain happiness; it’s an amazing feeling to find out how something works and bring it into operation,” Gabrielson said. “Second, we see the growth of a special pride and confidence stemming from this new ability; it’s a confidence not easily shaken, because it’s rooted in a competence that needs no approval from authority.”
And finally, there can be a realization, slow or in a flash, that these skills can lead to a lifetime of satisfaction and a well-paid career.
They can also equip kids with life skills that will come in handy when the they reach adulthood.
“You probably can’t fix your smartphone, but you can change its battery, and you can fix your sink, your shelf, and your car if you have these skills,” Gabrielson said. “Otherwise you’ll have to pay someone who does have the skills.”
Family Nights at the Science Workshop at El Sausal Middle School
In addition to the community science workshop bus at the Cesar Chavez Library on Thursdays, the team hosts Science Workshop Family Nights every second Friday of the month, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. (check their website to be sure) at the science workshop’s main spot at El Sausal Middle School campus.
On Nov. 8 they will be doing activities around flames and (harmless) explosions, and on Dec. 6 they will have sea creatures from the Monterey Bay.
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
Comments are closed.