In 2018 Foldscope helped us to enable, launch and bring science experience to the local community in Iraq. As a young undergraduate student, I really like the idea of Frugal science and have many wow moments every time I use Foldscope. As a result, this passion has been driven from only a hobby to become an activist and science engager in Iraq.

I am so proud for being part of this emerging community project. First of all, I would like to thank everyone who supported the idea and helped to make Foldscope Iraq happen, especially “ Knowledge Space ” Team in Kirkuk and Foldscope Instruments by their generous collaborations.
Great news, the local chapter of Foldscope in Iraq got accepted
-as a science engagement project- to participate in this year’s Falling Walls Engage program in Berlin (7-9th Nov 2019) and also hold two workshops in the Berlin Science Week (6th Nov 2019) for students from international schools in Berlin. (6-7 & 13 Years old).

I had the sincere pleasure to be representing Foldscope global community on this international level, this was one of the most special experiences in my life. Thank you @manup, Jim, @ken-ta, Foldscope Team for working to connect people by love for science. and everyone in Foldscope community I really feel myself belong to such meaningful and valuable community. So thanks to everyone for being here.
Falling Walls 2019. Engage. Berlin, 08.11.2019. Copyright: photothek/Xander Heinl
Falling Walls Engage is an international platform for all forms of science engagement, hosted by Falling Walls in cooperation with the Robert Bosch Stiftung. Its goal is to showcase successful science engagement projects from a wide range of fields.
Reference > https://www.falling-walls.com/engage/about

• Berlin Science Week campus for 6 & 7 th Nov.
• Berlin Science Week campus for 6 & 7 th Nov.
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I learned many new lessons from this journey.
1- Everyone is learning and trying to do something, we should just start anyway and work hard as we can do it also.
2- Before to scale a project, maximize the impact of it using the resources we already own or have access to.
3- Focus more on building the community and make awareness events. Because science should be experienced by all people that’s what science engagers should work to achieve. I see that everyone can contribute somehow to promote science and find creative ways to introduce people to science.
Please refer to this link for participants’ projects in Falling Walls program from around the globe > https://falling-walls.com/engage/engage-winners/
4- Science is a big opportunity to change the world let’s try to involve everyone in changing the world by connecting with science.
I am going to share another post about the biodiversity of Berlin soon.

Thanks for reading and looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ways to share specific learning stories.

Warm regards,
Muhamed Abbas / Kirkuk – Iraq

2019 – 11- 19