Foldscope Embedded Pedagogy in Stem Education: A Case Study of SDG4 Promotion in India

Abstract

Most government schools and colleges run on low budgets in India, yet they cater to a large population of students. In government settings, biology labs lack basic equipment such as simple microscopes or compound microscopes or sometimes possess just one instrument. In the absence of compound or simple microscopes, the students lose interest in science. To solve this issue, the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, introduced the origami microscope, the foldscope, into the Indian educational system. In this article, we describe the design of a sustainable, inclusive, and equitable curricula for teaching biological concepts using the foldscope. We describe the implementation of foldscope-adapted curricula in post-secondary settings to teach natural selection, developmental biology, parasitology, and economic Zoology via individual, small-group, and large-group field trips, and project-based learning that involves experiential learning. We found that these culturally sensitive pedagogies involving translingual instructions had the potential to retain students and make science education accessible for the linguistically and culturally diverse population of India. We could successfully implement our project as per the five priority action areas outlined by UNESCO. Therefore, we propose the adoption of the foldscope-adapted curricula under SDG4 to make STEM education accessible in budget-frugal settings.