Bamboo Microscopes

In a remote village in eastern India, dozens of underprivileged children are for the first time marveling at the elaborate details of flower petals with the help of a microscope—made out of bamboo.

Fitted with a 20 lens, the light, compact and ecofriendly microscope is proving a boon for dozens of cash-strapped schools, granting students firsthand access to an otherwise unaffordable scientific tool.

This nifty device is a product of the creative minds at Jodo Gyan, a small nonprofit in New Delhi. “Indian children are not getting to experience all the joy and wonder of science because there is too much emphasis on the memorization and repetition of concepts,” says Usha Menon, a government researcher who founded Jodo Gyan in 1999. “Hundreds of thousands of children are learning without understanding anything.”

Priced at 150 rupees (roughly $4), the microscope is just one of the educational tools created by Jodo Gyan, literally translated as ‘linking knowledge’. Other tools include mathematical card and board games and sticky geometric shapes in a variety of colors.

“The microscope has opened up a whole new world for these children,” says Deb. “They could never have imagined that an ant could have tiny antennae or that dragonfly wings could have such beautiful and intricate patterns.”