Determining the Usage of Foldscope: An Origami Paper Based Economical Microscope

The main objective of the present study is to evaluate the efficacy of foldscope and also used to compare foldscope and normal light microscope. This diagnostic tool is helpful in learning biology through paper microscope in different Government and Private Institutes including schools and colleges of Erode District, Tamil Nadu, India. A paper based origami foldscope is portable and affordable with a magnification up to 2000X and 2 micron resolution. Together, it is economic, durable and easy to handle tool for scientific studies. For visualization of specimen under foldscope, light source is used either natural light during day time or artificial light source operating on LED Magnifier through batteries. This new microscope doesn’t require any special labels and could help increase access to low-cost plant science diagnostic tool. The hands on training of the microscopic instrument generally helped the student’s to understand the concept of microscopic biological world. Hence, the current research on usage of Foldscope suggested that this origami microscope could be incorporated in every school’s syllabus for better understanding of biology in future and also its perspectives were discussed to provide recommendations in analytical plant science research.