editor 'Crystallography News' of the British Crystallographic Association, 'Fortran Friends', P.O.Box 64, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0TH,UK
The BCA organises teaching schools for both graduate students working for a higher degree and for other members with differing educational needs. There are also smaller workshops, usually arranged during our annual Spring Meeting on special topics such as twinning, or a 'round robin' exercise to test X-ray equipment by comparing results on standard materials and data sets. An intensive three day 'Introductory Crystallography' course was intended mainly for members who work in more isolated conditions perhaps in industrial laboratories, and who may have forgotten some of the fundamentals.
The teaching schools are held annually, alternating between protein crystallography and structure determination mainly using X-rays for chemical crystallographers. This year the one for protein crystallographers to be held in the University of Bath in September 1998, next year, Easter 1999, one is planned in the University of Durham for chemical crystallographers.
Other BCA educational projects are described including a
competition to design a crystallographic exhibit for
an interactive science centre, a survey of educational
software for microcomputers, a report on sources
of educational materials to encourage young children to
take an interest in crystallography and the maintenance of the BCA
home pages on the World Wide Web (WWW) URL http://gordon.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/BCA/index.html
where information on these projects is continually updated,
together with news of forthcoming courses, meetings, job
vacancies, links to journal publishers with contents pages,
manufacturers and suppliers of crystallographic hardware and
software. I am collecting links to sites which have educational
pages on specific topics, such as 'Fourier Transforms'.
The winning entry in the 'Design-an-exhibit' competition suggested the use of novel shapes of building blocks to show that space can be filled with models which are neither cubical nor rectangular. These are exhibited each year as part of the UK Festival of Science Week, held in March. We have also developed planar nets of the shapes so that a class of children can try constructing cardboard models for themselves.
Over the past year we have collaborated with other societies such as the British Association for Crystal Growth, in running crystal growing competitions for schools, as a way of attracting young people to crystallograhy, which is not yet listed as an essential element of education in the UK National Curriculum.
The BCA gratefully acknowledges support for World Wide Web activity from the Crystallography Department of Birkbeck College, University of London, and from the ISIS facility of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory,