The Los Altos History Museum has scheduled its Apricot STEM Fair: A Tale of Two Valleys event 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 16 in the museum’s courtyard, 51 S. San Antonio Road.
The festivities will feature family-friendly science, technology, engineering and math activities, including robotics demonstrations, engineering a Mars landing with eggs, catapulting apricots, building marshmallow towers, creating photo-sensitive art, drawing with fractal colors, making a sundial, games exploring the science and technology of early agriculture, and more.
Workshops will teach how to craft a binary code bracelet and how to discover Fibonacci patterns in nature. Lisa Prince Newman, author of “For the Love of Apricots,” will hold a book signing and conversation 10-11:30 a.m. about all things apricots and will share her recipes.
Permanent display spotlights local stories
The Apricot STEM Fair is the second in a series of four programs offered in support of the museum’s new Permanent Exhibition, “Making Connections: Stories from the Land,” slated to open in 2023. The exhibition, billed as an immersive experience through interactive screens, touchable objects and listening stations, highlights stories tied to the valley, creeks, hills and neighborhoods of Los Altos.
“The new Permanent Exhibition is organized by geography rather than chronology,” said museum executive director Elisabeth Ward. “Nowhere does the juxtaposition of events show up more clearly than the transition from The Valley of Heart’s Delight to Silicon Valley, something many of our residents witnessed and remember. Both time periods used science, technology, engineering and math. The STEM Fair is an opportunity to highlight the differences and similarities between these two periods in history, and celebrate both the continuity and the changes in our valley.”
Admission is $7 per person, payable at the gate, and free for ages 12 and under. The materials fee to participate in the workshops is $10 per person.
Space is limited for workshops, and advance registration is required.
All proceeds from the Apricot STEM Fair support the museum’s Permanent Exhibition Capital Campaign.
To register for workshops and for more information, visit losaltoshistory.org.
