About ScienceWorks

Our Story

ScienceWorks Hands-on Museum is an interactive STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) museum located in Ashland, Oregon, serving visitors of all ages throughout Southern Oregon and Northern California. Founded in 2002 as a private response to a crisis in public science education, ScienceWorks is committed to inspiring wonder and stimulating creative exploration through fun interactive experiences.

In 2001, through a cooperative arrangement with the Kirlin Charitable Foundation and Southern Oregon University, ScienceWorks began leasing the 26,000 square foot building previously occupied by the Pacific Northwest Museum of Natural History. ScienceWorks brought life and vitality back into the long-closed structure, giving the building a fun and exciting new look. Hundreds of volunteers retrofitted the building, built exhibits and began implementation of the strategic plan. Since opening in 2002, ScienceWorks has served nearly one million visitors and 100,000 K-12 students throughout Southern Oregon and Northern California, with 2,000 member households across the region.

ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum is a community supported 501(C)(3) Non-Profit Organization. 

Land Acknowledgement

ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum is located within the ancestral homelands of the Shasta, Takelma, and Latgawa peoples who have lived here since time immemorial. The town now known as Ashland was once a centuries-old Shasta village called Where The Crow Lights.

In the 1850s, these Tribes were displaced when colonization and Gold Rush brought thousands of Euro-Americans to their lands, leading to warfare, epidemics, starvation, and villages being burned. Starting in 1853, treaties were signed, confederating these Tribes and others together, who would be referred to as the Rogue River Tribe. 

These treaties ceded most of their homelands to the United States, and in return, they were guaranteed a permanent homeland reserved for them. At the end of the Rogue River Wars in 1856, these Tribes and many other Tribes from Western Oregon were removed to the Siletz Reservation and the Grand Ronde Reservation. 

Today, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians are living descendants of the Takelma, Shasta, and Latgawa peoples of this area.  We encourage you to learn about the land you reside on, and to join us in advocating for the inherent sovereignty of Indigenous people.

Resources

• Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
• Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians
• Native-land.ca
• Teacher's Guide: The Land You Live On

Equity Statement

ScienceWorks for one and all.

It’s our mission to inspire wonder and curiosity, and to be a launchpad for the next generation of creative thinkers and problem solvers. To succeed in this mission, we are committed to building a more inclusive and equitable museum.

We subscribe to the philosophy of Universal Design and use that inclusive lens to inform our planning and decision-making.  Our financial assistance programs welcome over 6000 underserved visitors to the museum each year. We are a diverse, collaborative team that is a fractal of the community we serve.  We invite community partners to join us in our commitment to build that more inclusive, equitable world that we know is possible.

Mission and Vision

Mission: Inspiring curiosity and wonder through scientific exploration and interactive experiences.

Vision: To be a launchpad for the next generation of creative thinkers and problem solvers.

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