I have been home for the university holidays in KZN and I wanted to take this opportunity to use my Foldscope to expose my family members to the world of science. Both of my parents are very passionate gardeners. They know a lot about the plants in our garden but neither of them have ever seen plants under a microscope.
 
One of my dad’s favorite plants in our garden is the Aloe ferox, commonly known as the Cape Aloe. Seeing that it is winter, the aloes are fully flowering and have the most beautiful orange flowers. At periods throughout the day, there are olive-backed sunbirds and weavers that come to eat the pollen from the inside of the flowers and my dad loves to watch them. Because of this, I decided to go outside and collected one of the orange flowers to dissect, mount to a slide and show my dad. I settled on a thin section of one of the leaves to show him (image shown). For ease of viewing, I connected my phone to my foldscope so that I could explain to my dad what he was seeing.
 
I couldn’t have expected a greater reaction! My dad was blown away by what he was able to see. He said that he hadn’t fully realised the beauty and underlying complexity of these leaves. He said that his increased his appreciation for these beautiful flowers. He even asked me to send him the pictures so that he could show his friends and our landscaper.
 
Although this was a very cool experience, I also experienced some challenges. My first challenge was trying to dissect the flower into thin enough sections in order to allow enough light to pass through. I tried multiple different kitchen utensils to section the flower and also tried to view different parts of the flower. Although this was frustrating at times, I still enjoyed spending the time troubleshooting. This allowed me to also explain to my dad how science can be unpredictable and that sometimes things don’t work out the way that you expect.
 
This was a very special experience. My dad has always been so supportive of my studies and I really enjoyed being able to share science, which is one of my greatest passions, with him. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did but I can’t wait to use my foldscope to expose my friends and other family members to the microscopic world!