This past November, we worked with a group of Malagasy undergraduate, masters, and graduate students from Antananarivo, the capital of the nation. We assembled the Foldscopes together, and then prepared slides from plants and insects in the surrounding area. Many of the students we worked with will be going on to become high school teachers in other parts of the island, and we hope to maintain a relationship with these teachers as the project grows.

Below is a video of a leaf sample prepared by Haja, a botanist. The leaf was carefully “peeled” allowing a better view of the structure of the cells. People are speaking Malagasy and French, and in this clip can be heard commenting on the stoma visible in the leaf.