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Science Carnival On South Coast To Get Kids Excited About Science, Technology, Engineering & Math

Photo by Cal State Channel Islands
A student observes different colored light emitted by gas discharge tubes excited with high voltages.

Self-carving pumpkins. Flaming gummi bears. And, kids creating glow in the dark slime. Those are just some of the more than 100 science demonstrations and hands-on activities happening on Saturday at Cal State Channel Islands Science Carnival.

The university is partnering with six museums from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties to offer the 10th Annual Carnival aimed at encouraging interest in science, technology, engineering and Math or STEM among pre-K through 8th grade kids.

CSUCI Chemistry professor and carnival founder Phil Hampton will be doing a dragon’s flame breath activity where he will blow flames out of a tube.

"It's similar to what happens in a grain silo explosion when you have finely divided powders that are flamable, you can get a very combustible flame.  So, we use a polin from a tree called lycopodium powder and blow it out of the tubing.  And it catches on fire in quite a dramatic way," he says.

The free event takes place at Rio Vista Middle School in Oxnard on Saturday, November 3 from 4 to 8 pm. More than 3,000 kids and their families are expected to attend.