- The researchers taught students at a high school in Hornopirén to assemble and use a paper microscope.
A group of scientists visiting the San Ignacio del Huinay Foundation in Hualaihué, Los Lagos Region, held a workshop for students of the Colegio Sagrada Familia de Hornopirén in which they were taught to recognize the harmful algal blooms (HABs) through a paper microscope.
The students learned how to assemble and use Foldscope, a small, foldable, portable, resistant, and affordable microscope due to its low production costs, which has an optical quality similar to conventional microscopes, in order to detect the flowering of harmful algae in an early stage.
The scientists in charge of the project - from Chile, Spain, and the United States - trained 20 students from the school’s brigade of environmental leaders, with the purpose of taking science to the communities and empowering them in environmental issues.
"The current strategy of the Huinay Foundation places its relationship with communities as a fundamental pillar, with the aim of spreading scientific knowledge and raising awareness of the importance of natural heritage and biodiversity conservation," said Valter Moro, Enel Generación Chile’s CEO and chairman of the board of the San Ignacio del Huinay Foundation.