Riviera Ridge School Maker Fair Inspires Scientific Inquiry and Exploration

Students, teachers, and thinkers of all ages are invited to The Riviera Ridge School’s fourth annual Maker Fair, 10 a.m.-noon, Saturday, May 14 at the campus, 130 Mission Ridge Road, Santa Barbara.

The fair, which is free to attend, will feature 21 Twenty-one booths, each a fun and approachable scientific question, and allowing visitors to participate in a short, hands-on project to come up with the answer.

The school's state-of-the art Center for Design and Creative Engineering will be open with the full kitchen and 3D printer available for tinkering.

“The world has reached a tipping point, and we are in need of innovators who can solve complex problems: climate change, pandemics, and energy crises,” said Melissa Wilson, director of academic innovation. “American education has to go beyond teaching the mechanisms that led to these societal and environmental issues and instead give students agency to creatively solve them.”

At each booth, visitors are asked to use STEAM2 (science, tech/engineering, the arts, mathematics, and movement) concepts to help solve problems. Riviera Ridge faculty and student teams will be manning each booth, which will pose a scientific query and activity.

They include both playful and important questions, such as: How far can you make a rocket fly? How can you make ice cream from our garden? How can you design a 3D object?

“The goal of our maker fair is to showcase our STEAM2 programs and allow our community to become innovators themselves,” Wilson said. “At the heart of our fair is the idea that genius is inside of us all if we tap into our own creativity, innovation and inspiration.”

The fair highlights the school’s interdisciplinary electives program where students take three courses a year of their choice in the STEAM2 areas. This year students had 27 courses to choose from in a variety of disciplines. Courses have included surfing, coding, tropical ecology, the chemistry of chocolate, filmmaking, Shakespeare, fishing, SB Culture Blog, podcasts, and chess.

“The hope is that by their eighth-grade year students have cultivated their personal passion and are ready to present their passion to the rest of our school community,” Wilson said. “The fair kicks off our school's genius week, where students from junior kindergarten through eighth grade present their class projects and the middle school musical.”

“Our first Maker Fair was in 2016 and we did not have it during Covid, so we are excited to welcome our entire community back on campus for a magical day of hands-on learning,” said Molly Seguel, director of admissions.

For more on Riviera Ridge, email [email protected] or call 805-569-1811 ext. 131.