Inspired by the famous naturalist, Charles Darwin, a former science teacher has turned her west county farmhouse into a learning laboratory for young students with a curiosity about the natural world.

After more than 19 years of teaching ion the Berkeley public school system, Magi Discoe (left) and her husband retired to western Sonoma County, where she found an ideal place to put into action her long-held dream of a home-based science learning environment for kids in 4^th through 8^th grades.

In addition to the after school and summer sessions she hosts at the farmhouse, Discoe also makes field trips of her own, to share some of her collection and her physics projects with students during the academic year.

The students she works with have already been exposed to science in their regular school curriculum, Discoe says. But by using her own teaching methods, she is able to build on that necessarily superficial foundation.

Visit Darwin's Workshop here!