Since the successful establishment of X-WOW Kids Club, we recently introduced “X-WOW Future Collection”. For every microscope you purchase, we will donate one to a school in Africa. You have the potential to help hundreds of children take a deeper look at the unseen microscopic world. Their world will change because of your purchase. Consider buying your “X-WOW Future Collection” today. Together, we can make the difference!
Letter from Akpan M. Friday
A SOLUTION PATH TO ACHIEVING MICROBIAL LITERACY IN CHILDREN IN NIGERIA.
In a world where microbial activities directly affect our day-to-day life and everyday decisions of everyone in the society, there is an urgent need for microbiology literacy to be achieved starting from kids in pre-school, primary school and secondary schools to adults in higher institutions of learning and the general public. How would you achieve literacy in microbiology in kids? How would you inspire the next generation of African scientists to fight deadly diseases with high antimicrobial resistance that now threaten the world?
These questions became the beginning of a longstanding cooperation between I and and Team of other students in Nigeria who seek solution in achieving microbial literacy in kids in Africa.
Microbiology is a hands-on experimental subject. Students at various school levels need to carry out experiment which makes the discussed subject(microbes and microbiology topics) amazing and fascinating but across the country here, the lack of equipment such as the microscope, has served as an hindrance to achieving microbial literacy. The X-WOW Science Kids Club Team has been on a mission to achieving microbial literacy and ultimately inspire the next generation of future scientists.
Some months ago, I received a donation of a microscope, microbe books for children, slides and other items from X-WOW; A social enterprise aimed at creating social impact. With these items, I founded X-WOW Science Kids Club in Abuja, Nigeria where I and my Team visits local primary and secondary schools to engage pupils and students who have never seen a microscope before teaching them about the microscope, microbes and engaging them in fun microbe related activities.
The project has received laudable applaud from individuals and schools with more kids and adults having full based knowledge and awareness of the microbial world. The team, in the last few months has inspired over 100 pupils in different schools across the Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria and the kids received the experience with great enthusiasm. Also, we recently lunched a Buy 1, Donate 1 project in collaboration with X-WOW. What this means is that for every microscope someone buys from X-WOW, they will donate 1 to a school in Africa. It has so far been going fine and in no distant time, we will be donating a microscope to a school in Abuja, Nigeria. This will help the kids in various projects,induce curiousity, and make them aware of the microbial world. We encourage as many people to buy into this idea.
It is our believe that the voluntary services we offer to the African society at X-WOW Kids Club will improve literacy in microbiology, help in awareness about preventive measure to health issues, we therefore encourage microbiologists, microbiological learned societies and microbial literate professionals, to participate in and contribute to this initiative, by further evolving the basic framework, contributing ideas and materials for topics, videos and class experiments, and developing and seeking funding for creation of the necessary teaching tools and materials.
In conclusion, microbial literacy if desired can be achieved and "The overarching goal is for children to become familiar with all topics over the course of their school careers. It must be emphasised that it is not intended to create microbiology literacy by teaching the discipline of microbiology and creating microbiology professionals. Rather, the intention is to deliver an adequate knowledge base of precisely those microbial activities central to empowerment of society to achieve improvements in everyday life, evidence based policy development and planetary stewardship.
