Miami, June 26, 2020 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Homestead Campus will host the Summer STEAM Adventure, a free virtual camp via Zoom for children and young adults ages 10- 22 interested in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM). The camp is for Miami-Dade County residents only and runs from July 1 – 31.
Participants will receive a kit in the mail that includes a Foldscope of their own to keep. A foldscope is a paper microscope that is portable, durable, can magnify up to 140X and can affix to a cellular phone to capture photographic images of the microscopic sample for storage, posting on social media or to create a poster for presentation with original imagery.
Under the tutelage of Homestead Campus Associate Professor Dr. Nia Madison, a biomedical scientist and a molecular biologist; and Dr. Sadeaqua Scott, a scientist in molecular and cellular biology; students will assemble their foldscopes, learn microscopy principles, theories and techniques. Each student will select samples to investigate from their own environment, discuss their reasoning for selecting the sample, and expectations versus the actual discoveries. The collected images of the magnified sample will be used to create a poster that can be presented by the students at various scientific colloquia.
Dr. Madison pioneered MDC’s groundbreaking Microbiology Girls Club and is a 2010 L’Oréal USA For Women in Science fellow. In addition to teaching at MDC, she is a biomedical scientist with more than 20 years of research experience in retrovirology, parasitology and host innate immune responses.
This event is funded through the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Office of the Mayor, and the Board of County Commissioners.