The Fast and Curious Tour rolled through November with a packed schedule across the Midwest and Southeast. We kicked things off with RAYN Growing Systems in Minneapolis, where Holly trained their team ahead of their NSTA workshop on using Foldscope to analyze hydroponic systems.
From there, Holly traveled to North Carolina to train 21 fifth-grade educators in Caldwell County, then joined Chris in Winston-Salem for the NCSTA Conference, where they staffed an exhibitor table and led a hands-on workshop. Mid-month brought major momentum: a Foldscope 2.0 training
for Spartanburg District 7 following their district-wide order of 900+ scopes, followed by Rock Hill Career Day with 700 seventh graders, an SCSELA board meeting presentation, and two university stops—Lenoir-Rhyne and App State's Hickory campus—to train professors, teachers, and pre-service educators.
Along the way, the tour continued to highlight how districts and organizations are integrating Foldscope into long-term science initiatives. Spartanburg's large summer order—sparked by a coordinator who attended Holly's SCSELA workshop—showed how quickly enthusiasm can scale when educators experience Foldscope firsthand. University partners echoed this momentum, with faculty and pre-service teachers at Lenoir-Rhyne and App State eager to bring low-cost microscopy into both their coursework and future classrooms. Each stop reaffirmed the program's core mission: making scientific exploration accessible, portable, and joyful.
Paola Moreno-Roman, a Fast and Curious Tour Workshop Leader
Holly then visited Iredell-Statesville Schools to train 33 elementary teachers before heading to Philadelphia for the Cell Bio ASCB Conference. Returning to the Carolinas, she wrapped up November with three district trainings: Rutherford County, Catawba County, and Fort Mill—working with science and STEAM educators across grade levels and showcasing both Foldscope 2.0 and Foldscope Mini.
Kaplan Career University Teachers in their First Workshop
As December arrived, the momentum continued. Museum educators at the South Carolina State Museum explored new ways to incorporate Foldscope into public programming, while district trainings reinforced how Foldscope is becoming a staple in science departments across the region, used for everything from elementary STEAM lessons to middle school inquiry labs. With packed rooms, curious learners, and hundreds of new scopes heading into classrooms, the Fast and Curious Tour is closing out 2025 energized and ready for even more discovery in the year ahead.
