Oops! There is something wrong with my foldscope!

Jul 31, 2018 • 8:19 AM UTC

Unknown Location

140x Magnification

Unknown

TCIS Outreach

We are a group of students, volunteers and staff working with TIFR Hyderabad's Science Education and Outreach program: http://www.tifrh.res.in/~outreach/

39posts

26comments

1locations

Does the title of this blog sound familiar from any of your recent experiences with foldscopes? It just might, if you are an enthusiastic foldscope user (like me) who wants to put a foldscope in the hands of every school kid. Perhaps you recently conducted a teachers’ workshop and then let loose the foldscopes into schools. And then found that in a classroom full of excited kids, unexpected things can happen, even in the folding of foldscopes.
We gathered a few issues from our recent experience of doing a follow-up at various schools, issues that were most commonly overlooked, but resulted in low visibility, blurriness and also false observations. If students fail to see a clear image or rather, see some dark artefacts, and even believe that this is what they are expected to see, they not only fail to observe and understand, but also lose their interest and motivation. And then, re-folding a bunch of misfolded foldscopes can be very frustrating for any teacher.
Of course we could begin with care, say with a class of 15 instead of 40, and have each step carefully checked. But in the flurry of school schedules it might not always happen. So we get here some common errors with foldscope folding. Though some of them may sound crude but believe me, they do happen!
1. Missing lens in the lens slot: This happens when the lens is placed above the top magnetic coupler or no double sided sticker is used between the coupler and the lens. 2. Lower magnetic coupler inserted in reverse orientation in the coupler slot.

Wrongly inserted coupler

Correctly inserted coupler
3. Improper creasing of the folds (especially, the part having the lower coupler which folds back to attach to the lens slot and the folds of the focus ramp)
4. Improperly folded/inserted focus ramp (this causes friction while moving the focus ramp)
5. Improper folding near the slide slots (check the arrows so that when you pull the flap, the opening for the slide slot is visible)

Incomplete folding at slide slot

Correctly folded slide slot
6. Reverse insertion of slide into slide slot (make sure that the coverslip side faces the lens)

Slide inserted in reverse

Slide inserted correctly
7. Adhesive, dirt and fingerprints on the lens (handle the lens carefully, clean it with the cotton swab given and don’t touch it with your fingers)
8. Do not try to keep samples directly on the lens (without a slide) and observe.
So next time , if you or your students are not able to see a clear image through your foldscope, please check the above points and troubleshoot the problem.
We welcome your additional inputs for troubleshooting, and any practical tips for getting foldscopes into classrooms on a large scale.
Cheers!
Debashree (with Udit , Ashalatha, Jayashree)