Feb 15th, 18:04/ Night shift street activity. It was dark already when I left home walking aimlessly hopefully to find some kids. Since I was late that day I tried to come up with more appealing excess to pass because I had long day and it was already getting dark so kids will be home etc..

What did I do?
I embraced that voice inside me and showed care by promising myself to have enough rest after activity.
But then I had to deal with these new kind of uncertain thoughts as I suspected it will be trickier to do activity at night time and think how to not give any chance for new misunderstanding.

About activity:

In empty land between homes two kids were playing marbles. I had to carefully choose my words so they do not freak out and be afraid of me.
Here is how I started the conversation/activity:

• Greetings (salam aleykum) with big smile.
• Ask about how they are and doing?
• Talk affirmatively like; they must be going to school and have science classes.
• Then I connect the activity from there to subject like; Let’s do an experiment to see things closer than it looks by using magnifier and get to know more about science. So I use objects around us to be familiar when I see they hold something in their hands I hand over them the magnifier to look at what they have so in our case they had marbles.
• After I show them the magnifier I will make smooth transition to foldscope by asking question; “who wants to see hidden creators that we do see with only our eyes or even the magnifier?”
• At this point I take out foldscope and make quick intro to what it is without going into any detail because the idea is to show them results and answer the question to gain more creditability.
• The first time I use phone camera to show them all together and slowly make them feel comfortable to step in and let their curiosity lead them and attract them towards the scene where it all starts wonderland.
• As I explain and involve them in the process I talk about other related topics like; 1- personal/community hygiene. 2- Observe think about things around us invented by humans as process of ( dreaming, acquiring education, doing experiments in order trying to make life easier). 3- How to use the gift that human has which is brain in most efficient way by feeding it with useful information, doing good at school and taking advantage of internet also as source to learn new skills.
• I try to end up the activity with call to action to start dreaming and learning more about what they want to be in the future. Also to try out new things as much as possible while they are young.

Activity Lessons & Reviews:

• Block time for doing Foldscope not just.
• Do it day time early enough before it gets dark.
• Better Introduction I tried was like to start from asking what class are they in and mention science subject and if they would like to do an experiment now here and there. This was more relevant with them so didn’t make them fear to talk with strangers.
• Connected science with other topics and how to start dreaming of what to become in the future.
• I give the glasses as example of how does the lens in the microscope work.
• Washing hands.

Statistics:

Outreach > Kids = 4
Duration > 50 min
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Total to this day:
Reach (seen/engaged) = 89
Time invested = 490 min