2025 Grantee Update!

The search is always on to find activities that will intrigue the afterschool masses and move them away from their screens, and hopefully develop at least a tidbit of interest in the outside world. We thought maybe the opportunity to have some hands-on close-up time with microscopes would awaken a little curiosity about life beyond Roblox and other online games.

As with most everything, it has been an ongoing trial and error process in finding the best method of incorporating microscopes into our programming. Although we purchased five, we have found that setting up only one or two at a time increases an atmosphere of learning and decreases the chance of the session turning into chaos. Unfortunately for staff members, gross, scary, and disgusting seems to be the top three areas that grab their attention. Staff member Angela McCauley, below, occasionally sets up a microscope or two and spends some relaxed one-on-one time with interested patrons.

We purchased five microscopes, premade slides, blank slides, and a carry case for the slides we make. We included a microscope program during our summer reading program this year and brought Jeff Fields in to facilitate the event. He gave information and instruction before turning them loose on the microscopes. We were excited to have all five microscopes to use as all 59 children had the opportunity to see several different specimens.

We will continue to incorporate the microscopes into our programming as we strive to bring a balance to our young patrons’ screen times. There may be some who have absolutely no interest in the microscopic world, but we have noticed that we do have those who do have quite the fascination, especially our group of homeschoolers. We know when an impact has been made by their questions on when we are going to do it again.

We so appreciate the South Central Community Foundation giving us the opportunity to add these microscopes and slides to our arsenal of tools as we compete against the pull of video games on our young patrons. Support Grants Like This