Children and their families are invited to CSUCI’s STEAM Carnival, 1-5 p.m. Saturday, March 8 at the campus’ South Quad.
More than 70 activities and displays from CSUCI programs and area partners such as Santa Barbara Zoo, MOXI Museum of Santa Barbara; kidSTREAM Children’s Museum; and Port of Hueneme are expected to participate.
Since it began in 2009, the CSU Channel Islands’ (CSUCI) STEAM Carnival (previously known as the Science Carnival) has catered to kids from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade with hands-on displays that can spin, shoot, scream, and smoke — all with a goal of inspiring to children with an interest in science and the arts.
“It’s always really been about giving families hands-on exposure to science, technology, arts and mathematics and show them how much fun science and the arts can be,” said Phil Hampton, the carnival’s founder and CSUCI’s interim dean of the School of Arts & Sciences.
“Santa Barbara Zoo will feature their conservation work,” said Rudi von May, CSUCI assistant professor of biology, who is helping to coordinate the carnival. “They will have a hands-on activity involving Monarch butterflies.”
The carnival has expanded over the years, evolving into the 2025 CSU Channel Islands STEAM Carnival (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics.)
This year, middle- and high school-aged students are invited to join in the fun. They check out dinosaur bones, dissect a sheep’s eye or “bling with science” by electroplating a ring with gold; they can also find out what college is all about.
“We’re going to have college-going information sessions in Spanish and English,” Hampton said. “There will be sessions about affording and going to college. There will be campus tours so they can visit different sites on the grounds and get a sense of what it’s like to go to college.”
New partners are involved with the STEAM Carnival this year, including Ventura and Moorpark colleges, which will have activities from their chemistry programs.
Also, for the first time, some classrooms and science labs will be open to students, such as the chemistry, physics and environmental science labs in Sierra Hall and the Nursing Sim Lab space in Manzanita Hall, where nursing students can work on mannequins.
The first Science Carnival consisted of about 40 CSUCI students running 30 activities for a crowd of about 250 attendees. When it was held for the first time on the CSUCI campus in 2024, it drew more than 2,000 guests, continuing to grow each year.
“When kids do hands-on science, their curiosity is sparked, and they are naturally curious,” von May said. “They experience not only science, but the arts and dance and music. Regardless of how they choose to learn about the world around us, it’s the love of learning that’s the important thing.”