WATSONVILLE — Nearly 200 K-12 students from around Santa Cruz County brought their unique science experiments and works of art to the fairgrounds in Watsonville for the 2025 Santa Cruz County STEAM Expo, which marked its second year Saturday.
STEAM is similar to the acronym STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but adds arts to the mix. The STEAM expo is organized by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education to encourage career exploration, bolster community connections and is similar to a traditional student science fair, but with interactive elements and performances.
“Part of what we do at the County Office of Education is try and create as many opportunities as possible for students to demonstrate their talent and knowledge, and to also create a bridge for young people to start thinking about the different opportunities that they have in the future,” said County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah at the expo. “We are seeing an increase in the number of students participating and increased interest from families wanting to be a part of this event, which shows the community how amazing our students are.”
Among the about 200 student science experiments on display at the event was one designed by Boulder Creek Elementary third grader Olivia Kjaergaard and fourth grader Anna Fonseca. Olivia explained how the pair conducted their experiment, which looked at the growth rates of plants under various conditions, such as growing them with cotton balls instead of soil and feeding them with other liquids aside from water such as herbal tea.
“Me and my partner Anna wanted to see if there was a more efficient way to grow plants,” Olivia told the Sentinel. “We found out that water is still the best but there are other different options. We were growing plants in dirt and in cotton balls so we were testing two experiments at once. The combination of water and cotton balls grew the best.”
Olivia’s dad and chemist Christian Kjaergaard was one of the judges at the event and said that the expo is also a great place for local science professionals to connect and share their work.
“This has been fun and I have met a lot of new people,” said Christian Kjaergaard. “I’m in biotech and I already met someone I want to collaborate with. And this is so good for the kids. They love it. Looking at problems and experimenting and working through them is so rewarding for them. Science is fun.”
Outside of the competition, numerous local organizations centered around the arts and sciences had interactive activities for attendees such as Vanessa Lopez, education pathway advisor at Cal State Monterey Bay, who brought a 3D printer to the expo. Lopez was promoting the college’s new mechatronics engineering program.
“Mechatronics is a brand new program on our campus and I like the idea that it’s very entrepreneurial,” said Lopez. “Students can try to solve the world’s challenges through designing, through engineering and through automating systems. I think the sky is the limit and I think people should not be fearful of pursuing something that seems so technical because it’s really helping the community at-large.”
The local nonprofit X Academy, which is centered around robotics and robotics competitions such as the international MATE ROV Competition, was back this year with a swimming pool and a station to construct submersible radio-controlled robots. Esmeralda Sostenes from Watsonville High School was stationed in front of the pool to assist first-time robot builders.
“We have done this before so we are assisting them,” Esmeralda said. “They are trying to pick up these little objects in the water. I am drawn to this because I like putting all of the components together.”
Career technical educator at Santa Cruz High School Seth Wilson brought in a custom arcade game setup for kids to play called the “LEO GEO,” that was constructed out of wood and old computer parts by his students.
“We basically built this out of junk,” said Wilson. “I love old arcade games and a lot of the other students do. So they designed this wedge-shaped layout and we got old plywood from the woodshop and if you look inside, we 3D printed stand-offs to mount the hardware inside of there. We spray painted it and the joystick kit had been laying around for years so we put it to work. We built this for almost nothing.”
Sophia Bird, Taylor Friedrich, Sedona Maver and Ivy Uphus from San Lorenzo Valley High School had a unique science art project on display. The students took award-winning Nikon Small World microphotography pieces and created unique custom patterns from the photos which they intend to print on fabric.
“We made different patterns and our next step is that we are going to make textiles from them,” Taylor explained. “We are also going to try and get in contact with the people who originally took the pictures.”
One of the more popular interactive areas was the instrument “petting zoo” brought in by Therese Johannesson of the Community Mountain School, which hosts musical camps for kids of all ages around Santa Cruz County.
“When I found out about the expo, I absolutely wanted to be here. We also have a teen band who will be performing today,” said Community Music School Executive Director Susan Willats. “I love hearing the sound of music echoing through the hall.”
For information, visit santacruzcoe.org.