CEMAS Takes Part in COSI Science Festival

On May 4th 2019, volunteers from CEMAS participated in the “Big Science Celebration” portion of Columbus COSI Science Festival. The COSI Big Science Celebration was a free one-day event hosted at the Columbus COSI location that provided entertainment and learning opportunities for thousands K-12 students and their families. CEMAS volunteers helped visitors to the CEMAS Micro World exhibit at the event to build their own “Foldscope” microscope. 

The Foldscope is an inexpensive, paper microscope that can be assembled in less than 15 minutes. It is durable, portable and provides quality optical images at magnifications over 100 times. In his TED talk, Manu Prakash, the inventor of the Foldscope, shares his vision for breaking down the price barrier to scientific exploration and bringing inexpensive microscopy to the world.

Over 75 K-12 aged visitors built microscopes and used them to look at leaves, flowers and insects. Using special red/blue glasses, visitors were also able to view 3D images of micro-fossils and insects on anaglyph posters at the exhibit.