Bluemink is very common in Aizawl city of Mizoram. Took a sample of pollens and observed under the foldscope. The pollens are very small, so had digitally zoom and take photo. Vivid colour is due the light arrangement (from the top).
Author: edurafi
Foldscope workshop for teacher/facilitators from community centres in M Ward area of Mumbai
Today I conducted a training session for 20 teachers/facilitators from 5 five different community centres who caters to slum children. I had microscopy sessions at each centre earlier and kids have asked me if they can get the foldscopes. I requested Shailja ma’am of DBT and she sent a box full of foldscopes. Thanks to…
Foraminifera in sand sample
Few weeks back had done two posts on foraminifera. I tried to look for it in the sand sample collected from Jaipur, India. Couldn’t find the foraminifera in that sample. I kept looking for it many different samples since then. Today, I was digging through the sand sample collected from the Girgaon chaupati (beach) in…
Unidentified larvae seen at Vishnu Nagar community centre in Mumbai
While conducting a foldscope session at Vishnu Nagar community centre in Mumbai collected water sample from outside the hall. The water was coming out of drainage pipe and there was lot of algal growth around it. When looked at it through foldscope saw a this organism. Please help in identifying.
Foldscope, children and fun!
Conducted two microscopy sessions at two different community centres in Mankhurd area of Mumbai. First Centre was in Indira Nagar and second Centre was in Janatha Nagar. In both the sessions we all had fun. Once children understood how foldscope works, they brought various samples to observe under the foldscope. The most interesting observation was…
Making science interesting for first generation learners
Bhim Nagar is a slum inside Maharashtra Nagar of Mumbai. TISS in collaboration with locals runs a community centre there. Children from first grade to tenth grade come to the community centre. Most of them are first time learners, and drop out rate is very high among these children. TISS survey showed that two most…
Microfossil: a successful hunt
I have been looking for microfossils from last month. Finally found one in sand sample collected from a beach in Mumbai.
Eyes of Moina and Drosophila
We had a microscopy workshop at CUBE lab of HBCSE Mumbai. Students from different colleges and schools attended the workshop. A group of students who are working on Drosophila (a fruit fly) wanted to take good close up picture of its eyes. They want differentiate between two species by looking at structure of eyes. We…
‘Seeing’ what is known and unknown
Young children of Jai Ambe Nagar, a slum near Mankhurd which comes under M Ward, know a lot of microorganisms but they had never seen a living microorganism before. Today that got an opportunity to explore the microscopic world with the help of a low cost paper microscope (foldscope) invented by Professor Manu Prakash. They…
What does the sand on a beach contains?
Yesterday I was at Girgaon chaupati beach. I lifted a pinch of sand to check what it contains. It had many tiny objects which gave indications of the rich marine life. I could not identify the organisms just by looking at the broken parts but nonetheless it was fsdcfascina to see so many beautiful objects…
Cuscuta: a parasitic plant
Went for a morning walk and spotted Cuscuta. It is a parasitic plant which wraps itself around a host plant and survives on food produced by the host. I took a small section of it with a sharp blade and observed it under the Foldscope. Section was good enough to see different parts of…
Mold in my Kitchen
20 days back has keep some garlic in my fridge. Today saw that some fungus has grown on it. Till some pictures. Different parts of the mold a visible in pictures.
Hunt for microfossils continues
This time used 10x lens with digital zoom of phone camera. Got some good photos but no microfossils. In the photos you can see that the sand in Jaipur, Rajasthan is composed mainly of quartz particles, and some minerals.
Hunting microfossils: a failed experiment
Work brought me to Jaipur, Rajasthan. It is located in Aravali mountain range, the oldest in Indian subcontinent. I thought it is a best time and place to look for microfossils. While traveling to work, I spotted exposed sedimentary rock. It was exposed due to road construction (see photo). I scrapped done surface deposit and…
Impromptu microscopy session at GGSS Telipada, Jaipur, Rajasthan
After classroom observation at GGSS Telipada school , as there was some free time, did a microscopy session with kids. Took water sample from outside the school building. Luckily, water was so rich that students got to see so many kinds of microorganisms. Sharing the video:
Line drawn using a ball point pen
Ball of a ball point pen sometimes leaves some gap in the centre because of which single line appears as two lines under the Foldscope. The gap is so small that it is not visible when we write on paper.
How to use Foldscope in the History Classroom
Two History teachers from Maharashtra, India had Foldscope and they wanted to use it in their class. I’m writing this post to explain how history and science education are similar and how tools like Foldscope needed in history and science classrooms. I’m using task used in the following video by Young Historians as an example:…