On Monday, around 60 students from Chennai schools carried back home paper microscopes of 1.9 microns power, that they themselves made. The children, from classes VII, VIII and IX, also spoke on climate change and made drawings on the subject at the Universal Children’s Day event held at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Taramani.
Speaking on the occasion, MSSRF founder and agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan underlined the need to understand climate change in the local context. Tamil Sangam literature speaks of five different land forms and “Climate change has to be studied and understood differently in each of these ecosystems,” he said.
Prof. Swaminathan also said since future generations would face the impact of climate change, children must know about the variations in rainfall and temperature, and changes in the coastline.
Mo. Pandiarajan, resource person from the Tamil Nadu Science Forum, said the microscope, called the foldscope, was developed by a professor and a student of the Stanford University in 2014.
