Hi GOSH,
Here is an update from the Foldscope Indonesian Fellow / Fab Lab Bali. Our event name is Jimbaran Fishing Communities Looking Closer with Foldscope. Due to complications with the logistic of the funds (the grant finally came in 9th June!), adjustments are made to the original plan of the workshop.
The workshop is divided into 2 sessions:
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Session 1: Foldscope Workshop (conducted on 28th May)
We decided to go for a more intimate workshop with the fishermen (15-20). Since we were running low in manpower, we contacted a local Bali high school and we ran a Foldscope workshop with the students prior to the session with the fishermen. We taught (10) student volunteers how to assemble and use the Foldscope. This also includes the basics of collecting wet and dry samples and how to prepare those for the Foldscope.
The kids were really quick in understanding how to work around the Foldscope! After the training session with our “helping hands”, we head to the Kedonganan Beach to run the main Foldscope session, with the local fishing community. Pak Narto and Pak Putra, the fisherman that we introduced the Foldscope to last year during the Bali Fab Festival event helped us gather the fishing community for the workshop.
Our student volunteers helping out the fishermen how to assemble and use the Foldscope
While running a demonstration, the fishing community was curious about the health of the fishes at the waters they usually fish from. We took a live catch and dissected it and found strands of microplastics on the fin and the belly
Next we did a towing demonstration with the plankton net to show they can collect the water samples and how these samples are important to understand the ocean’s health
Checking the freshly caught samples!
Lot’s of microplastics
Here is a video of the microplastics found in the sample -
Session 2: Making Frugal Plankton Nets (to be conducted)
As our grant came delayed and the fishing community happened to have a local religious celebration to be done for the month - we have yet to find the time to conduct the plankton net making session but we are planning to conduct it within the month of June.
We are currently working on a small video recap of the 1st workshop session. We plan to finish Citizen Science Guidebook for Fishing Communities after the 2nd Workshop. We are also trying to establish the ecosystem for the fishermen with local universities to keep the citizen science movement going! So definitely alot of ongoing activities planned as part of the Fab Lab Bali’s Frugal Science Initiative