The Riviera Ridge School Welcomes Community to Create and Innovate at Annual Maker Fair

Press releases are posted on Independent.com as a free community service.

Santa Barbara, CA. (January 2023) – The entire Santa Barbara Community is invited to The Riviera Ridge School’s mountain-view campus on Saturday, January 20th, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm for their sixth annual Maker Fair. Families, students, and the general public are encouraged to come out for a free morning of exploring more than 20 hands-on stations. Each station will pose a fun scientific question that visitors will solve with a quick and engaging project.

“Businesses are increasingly valuing creativity and innovation as top skills necessary for future employees,” Director of Academic Innovation Melissa Wilder said. “At our school and in each station at our Maker Fair, students are actively learning to hone their problem-solving and creative thinking skills so that they are ready for any challenge the future holds.”

Visitors to the Maker Fair will have the opportunity to meet, laugh, and learn with Riviera Ridge faculty from all disciplines, who will partner with a current student at each booth. Students and teachers will help guide people in using STEAM2 (science, tech/engineering, the arts, mathematics, and movement) concepts to figure out the answer to each query. These investigations include exciting inquiries, such as “How can you make ice cream in a bag?” “How can you compose a piece of music with a banana?” and “How far can you make a rocket fly?”

“Our Maker Fair involves subjects from every discipline, allowing visitors to let their individual interests, strengths, and curiosities guide them,” Wilder said. “Our STEAM2 curriculum at Riviera Ridge also follows this model, providing opportunities for students to ask questions, find solutions, and discover the magic of innovation.”

Riviera Ridge’s Center for Design, Engineering, and Creativity, a STEAM2 hive of ideas complete with a full kitchen, 3D printer, backyard garden, and ocean views to inspire the mind, will be open to explore as well. This space invites students of all grade levels throughout the year to try their hand at tinkering, robotics, cooking, hydroponics, and innovation of all kinds. There will also be booths to visit from Explore Ecology, SB Botanical Gardens and UCSB. 

The Maker Fair is a free and fun taste of the school’s interdisciplinary electives. A signature program in the RRS curriculum, the STEAM2 electives allow students to choose three exciting classes a year. Throughout their three trimesters, students can experiment with their interests, diving into different courses, such as robotics, cooking, surfing, chocolatiering, podcasting, food blogging, musicals, oceanography, engineering, knitting, and many more. 

“Our electives are the passion projects of our faculty who are genuinely invested in and excited about the courses they design,” Wilder said. “This sense of delight is contagious. By providing opportunities for students to explore a variety of chosen activities and careers, our students are well on their way to finding their passion, purpose, and personal joy.”

At Riviera Ridge, we provide student-centered, individualized learning in a joyful and nurturing community, inspiring academic excellence and valuing difference. The educational vision for each Riviera Ridge graduate is to empower individual potential, inspire purpose beyond self, and cultivate social responsibility as they prepare for high school and beyond. 

For more information, email info@rivieraridge.org or call 805-569-1811 ext. 131.