Santa Barbara Middle School’s interactive Academic Fair takes place this Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, February 11 and 12 at 6:30pm on their campus, located at 1321 Alameda Padre Serra in Santa Barbara.

Tuesday evening will showcase work from their Upper School students in grades eight and nine. The audience will be the jury for the eighth grade Mock Trial, Murder a la Carte, determining the cause of death of notorious food critic “Simon Fogg,” who is found dead on his yacht after enjoying a sumptuous meal, possibly laced with poisonous mushrooms. The chief suspect, “Chef Kat Koo Kola,” is charged with first-degree murder, but a verdict is yet to be determined.

In the ninth grade Conceptual Physics class, student engineering teams will demonstrate their mathematically programmed and engineered robots, one of which is a piano playing robot that uses an Arduino micro controller and electrical transistors on a breadboard that plays music on a keyboard.

Visitors will also witness a drum-playing robot that simultaneously uses several synchronized robots to play drums and a xylophone and a self-balancing robot which uses a gyro sensor to balance itself on just two wheels, engineered like renowned Dennis Kamen’s Segway scooter.

A team of students from the eighth grade Human Biology will demonstrate a CPR and First Aid scenario. Visitors who wander through the Algebra classes will see student-designed business plans which require graphing and solving linear equations and inequalities to maximize profits and revenues, which result in optimal business efficiency.

Theatrical performances of student-modified, humorous Spanish-speaking fairy tales and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream will be on stage for guests to enjoy. These performances will be presented in the school’s upper level.

On Wednesday evening, Santa Barbara Middle School will host a mini Open House for prospective students and families for the 2014-15 school year, which begins promptly at 5:30pm.

The Lower School Academic Fair, highlighting student academic work in grades 6 and 7, begins at 6:30pm.

Visitors will tour the “Wax Museum” where well-known authors (student performers) such as Dr. Seuss, Rick Riordan, and Robert Frost will come to life and share their personal histories.

The Santa Barbara Middle School’s Teen Press, a team of journalists, will offer a red carpet press conference highlighting interviews they captured at the recent Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Martin Scorsese, and Robert Redford are just a few that will be shown.

Math portfolios will be on display, and Academic Fair visitors will be able to interact with seventh grade STEM science projects that deal with circuits and lasers.

Visitors can take a student-guided tour through the sixth grade “Wonder Museum” and see hand-made woven baskets modeled after ancient civilizations, peruse prehistory scientific journals and literary works, as well as enjoy several art pieces and PowerPoint presentations.

In Social Studies, cultural multi-media stories will be told through student blogs and a media tribute to Nelson Mandela. Visitors will enjoy a pop culture fashion show presented in an innovative style – all the narration along the SBMS catwalk will be done in Spanish by the seventh grade class.

Both evenings will be filled with relevant and interactive academic projects designed to entertain, teach and celebrate the creative and clever mind of the middle school student.

Both nights are open to the public. Families interested in attending Santa Barbara Middle School are encouraged to attend. Applications for the 2014-15 school year are due Wednesday, February 12, 2014.

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