After years of transformation, the CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) Science Carnival is back as the CSUCI School of Arts and Sciences STEAM Carnival. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

Kids in kindergarten through eighth-grade and their families are welcome to the free carnival, 2-5 p.m. March 9 at CSUCI’s Central Mall.
 
“It took a while to make this happen again, but I am so, so, so excited,” said Phil Hampton, acting dean of Arts & Sciences who started the carnival.

“COVID nearly eliminated the event, but now it has grown up into the Arts and Sciences (A&S) STEAM Carnival,” he said. “We’ve added the arts, but it’s a very long bar over the ‘A’ to make it include art, social science and humanities.”

Hampton, who is also a professor of chemistry, said the STEAM Carnival will have 72 exhibits where kids can have fun discovering the sciences, arts, social sciences, and humanities with activities ranging from virtual reality demonstrations to slime-making stations to sun prints of plants.

Hampton started the Science Carnival in 2009 as a way to interest kids ages (pre-K through eighth grade) in science by showing them how much fun science can be.

More than 100 exhibits were set up at the Science Carnival where kids could make soap monsters in microwaves, watch pumpkins explode and experience the iconic flaming Gummi bear presentation.
 
Fossils, marshmallow shooters, and robots were also part of the exhibits as the Science Carnival grew year after year, drawing thousands of kids and families each year. At its peak in Fall 2018, nearly 3000 people attended the event. The last in-person Science Carnival was in early March 2020, just before COVID.
 
“Ever since 2009, I wanted a night where families could experience the wonder and amazement behind science,” Hampton said. “Now I want them to see the University, too and picture themselves here someday.”
 
The Science Carnival was held in Camarillo for the first three years, then moved to Oxnard. This is the first year it will be held on the CSUCI campus.
 
“As much as I wanted to bring science to the community, I want to introduce them to the campus in this next version of the carnival,” Hampton said. “I wanted families to experience a broader set of disciplines and I wanted them to come to our campus and be able to tour the campus.

“We need to encourage kids to think about envisioning themselves here.”
 
Campus tours will be available for guests, as well as a Photograph Your Future booth, compliments of CSUCI Admissions and Outreach.
 
“We’re going to have all kinds of costumes where kids can dress up as what they want to become,” Hampton said. “They can be a graduating senior with a cap and gown, a doctor, a nurse, or a scientist. And we’re set up to take Polaroids.”
 
Besides CSUCI students, many organizations and schools are volunteering to set up a booth at the STEAM Carnival including three community colleges: Ventura College, Moorpark College and Pierce Community College from Los Angeles County.

The Science Carnival was held virtually during the pandemic, when psychology alumna Jocelyn Garcia was a student at CSUCI. Now she’s on the staff helping to organize one of the biggest events on campus.

For more, visit the CSUCI STEAM Carnival website. Free parking is available in lot A3 on the campus.

The STEAM Carnival is funded through CSUCI’s Instructionally Related Activies or IRA.