Biology professor helps build 1,000 microscopes for NC schools

Every so often, an exuberant second grader will burst into Christine Sawyer’s classroom with an object they found outside – a colorful leaf, a feather or sometimes even bugs.

“Can we look at it under the microscope?” they usually ask.

Sawyer, a 15-year teacher at Bradley Creek Elementary School in Wilmington, relishes those moments. They’re opportunities to teach outside of a lesson plan and explore a child’s curiosity.

And, if not for the homemade microscope Sawyer built for her classroom, those moments wouldn’t be possible.

Sawyer is one of countless North Carolina educators who have benefited from Carolina biology professor Bob Goldstein’s state-wide DIY microscope workshops. For nearly a decade, Goldstein has visited schools across the state to host the workshops, specifically targeting schools in low-income areas, where students might not have access to microscopes. Recently, Goldstein’s workshop produced its 1000th microscope for North Carolina schools.

Built with plexiglass, adjustable wing nuts and utilizing the cameras of smart phones and tablets, these microscopes cost less than $20 to build and take less than 20 minutes to make, yet their impact in classrooms like Sawyer’s is enormous.

“It really does bring science to life for the students,” Sawyer said. “It’s one of those beautiful things that we want to happen in the classroom. It’s that authentic learning through inquiry and being able to see something in front of you.

“Your teacher can tell you all day long that moths and butterflies wings have scales, but that doesn’t connect at all to you until you can see it.”

In late August, Goldstein hosted a workshop at Wildwood Forest Elementary in Raleigh, and the room full of educators cheered as fifth-grade teacher Samantha Carter-Palmer put the finishing touches on microscope number 1000.

Goldstein, the James L. Peacock III Distinguished Professor in the biology department and adjunct professor in the art and art history department, never imagined his workshops would reach that milestone.

The project started inadvertently 10 years ago when Goldstein was looking for a fun, educational activity to do with his young children. Goldstein came across a smartphone microscope design by Kenji Yoshino, then constructed one to use with his kids.

Goldstein was shocked at how well the DIY microscope worked.

“I took a piece of paper and just ripped it and stuck it underneath because I just needed something to look at, and I couldn’t believe what I could see,” Goldstein said.

“I pushed my kids out of the way at first,” he continued, laughing.

Since then, the Carolina professor has led about five to 10 workshops per year, usually with 12 to 20 teachers.

Goldstein spends a few hours before each workshop drilling wood and plexiglass, cutting plexiglass and glueing in lenses to make a kit for each teacher to assemble. Goldstein receives funding from the National Science Foundation for the materials, but he covers his own travel costs – and he’ll travel to any elementary school in the state where at least 75% of the students receive free or reduced-cost lunch.

He also hosts a bigger workshop for about 40 teachers in the annual North Carolina Technology in Education Society convention in Raleigh.

The NCTIES convention is where Sawyer first connected with Goldstein, before inviting him to Bradley Creek in Wilmington for a workshop in 2021. The 15 microscopes Sawyer and her colleagues built in that workshop live in the school library, for teachers and students to check out. And like many of the schools Goldstein visits, they’re the only microscopes at Bradley Creek.

Though not as powerful as conventional microscopes, the DIY microscopes are powerful enough to show cells on flower petals or scales on butterfly wings. Better yet, because the microscopes utilize cell phone and tablet screens, multiple children can view specimens at the same time, creating a more social experience.

“That collaboration and conversation among students – that discourse that comes from this – you can’t beat that, right?” Sawyer said. “I mean, that’s what we want. That’s what we aim for every day in the classroom, whenever possible. And this microscope allows that to happen.”