ll grades 2, 4, and 5 classes and parents at Wilson Elementary participated in a unique class in the Library provide by SAM Academy called the ‘Wilson Community Science Workshop’. Walking into the Wilson Library student’s get very excited with eyes wide open because they know this will not be like any other class they have taken before. Tucked into one corner of the Library along two sides of the room are long wood workbenches, pegboards with tools, boxes and bins of stuff, and tall racks with lots of different materials. The designed space in the Library, an extension of the Sanger SAM Academy’s Science Workshop, and is now a weekly experience for selected classes to tinker and make. Making is part of a growing movement of hands-on learning that fosters experimentation through design thinking and project-based learning with a focus on STEM and the arts. Students began each semester by making their own cloth covered notebook, held together by stitches they sewed on themselves, and use the notebooks to record and document the things they will create, build, and invent. Dr. Valadez and his staff from SAM Academy meet with students and teachers one to three times a week. Next time you hear the sound of hammers, buzzers, and student talk about learning, it just may be the sound of Wilson students and parents engineering, inventing stuff or making art in the Library – the Wilson Community Science Workshop.