Science and Math Department Donates Microscopes

by Madi Cannon, Public Relations Writer – October 24, 2016

Science and math department donates microscopes to Fairborn City Schools

Fairborn City Schools will benefit from 60 microscopes recently donated by Cedarville University’s Department of Science and Mathematics.  

Students in kindergarten through 12th grade will use the microscopes for class lab work and discovery. The microscopes allow the students to explore science, gaining practical hands-on experience and supporting their visual learning. 

“This is real, and it sticks with the students,” said Tom Kirsch, biology teacher at Fairborn High School.

Cedarville University has a longstanding commitment to partner with local school systems. Last year, Cedarville’s science department donated microscopes to Xenia Christian School. 

In line with this commitment, when the science department recently updated more of its microscopes, it decided to donate the used microscopes to a local school. The microscopes have a 10-20 year lifespan left and are still in great working order. 

The Cedarville science department donated more than 60 microscopes to the Fairborn schools because it heard the district had a limited number of microscopes for classroom use. The schools owned a mix of about nine different models, all of which were nearing the end of their lifespan. Many incoming high school students had never used a microscope before. 

The Fairborn schools did not replace any of their existing microscopes. Instead, they added the microscopes to their present number of models, distributing them among a greater range of grades. The schools will benefit from having reliable, working microscopes to use in the classroom. 

“In this country, there is a great need to give students a solid foundation in the STEM field so that students can have some good experience under them as they enter college programs,” said Dr. Kaleb Pauley, assistant professor of biology at Cedarville. “Being able to use microscopes they will use as a freshman in college will give them an advantage. It’ll be less intimidating when they come into their first biology lab and we set a microscope in front of them.”

Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 3,760 undergraduate, graduate and online students in more than 100 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings and leading student satisfaction ratings. For more information about the University, visit www.cedarville.edu.