This discussion was prompted by the Presidential letter from Henk Schenk in an IUCr newsletter early last year. He suggested that we should all try to show younger children the excitement of crystallography. Since I am not a teacher myself I did not want to limit this discussion, merely to ask BCA members what they thought should be done.
We clearly have a problem with the image of crystallography as portrayed by the National newspapers and TV, phrases such as 'crystal balls' or 'crystal clear' are often seen, but there is rarely more technical news; David Stuart's image of the structure of the 'foot and mouth' disease virus has adorned recent copies of 'The Sun', but sadly not in response to how the structure was determined. As part of the IUCr Congress in Glasgow in 1999 our Press officer issued 'news items' related to the exciting 'breakthroughs' to be reported that day. The National media paid no attention. This ignorance extends to all walks of life, including rather surprisingly, some University Physics Departments which we were told, know nothing of modern crystallography and its importance in a technological society. Should we worry about this?
Members of the audience thought we should, because changes in the teaching practise in Universities mean that few now offer specialist courses in crystallography. Most students have very few lectures devoted to the fundamentals of crystallography as part of their undergraduate chemistry, physics, geology or materials science courses. A disturbing trend to 'Modularisation' is also squeezing out crystallography. The mathematical background of undergraduates coming up to University today is lower than it used to be. Should our 'Summer Schools' begin with remedial maths which would help the students understand crystallographic concepts?
Modern manufacturers supply 'black boxes' with their X-ray diffractometers, so that little details knowledge is now needed to solve a structure. Students should be taught to realise the limitations of the methods used in the algorithms within these 'black boxes'. Chris Hammond, University of Leeds, thought that we should put greater emphasis on the understanding of symmetries in two dimensional patterns; he finds materials science students who really understand plane groups have much less trouble with the 3D space groups. Phil Withers, University of Manchester, had suggested in his earlier lecture that some of his striking texture patterns of materials would make good designs for 'Liberty' fabrics. He pointed out that the Research Councils and others now make funds available for the Public Understanding of Science. We might seek a collaboration with Design Schools on using crystallographic patterns for wallpapers and fabrics. (I will maintain a list of such funding agencies and possible projects on the BCA web site, send me news preferably by email to [email protected]). Guy Orpen, University of Bristol, thought we should emphasise the excitement of discovery in crystallography, he still remembers an old 'BBC TV Horizon' program on the discovery of the structure of DNA. BCA members are not skilled film makers, but granting agencies such as the Wellcome Foundation are currently calling for collaborative projects between scientists and film makers to bring bio-medical dramatisations to live acting or video or film. Please send me news of any dramatisations or novels about crystallographers.
The consensus on educating secondary school children was that we should try to get some crystallography into special training courses for teachers; these are often run in school holidays by organisations such as the Institute of Physics, The Royal Society of Chemistry (R.S.C) and the EPSRC. The teachers attending these courses tend to be the more enthusiastic ones, hopefully, they will go back to their schools and spread the word to their colleagues. Sometimes they write in to say how much they enjoyed these courses, we might publish such letters in 'Crystallography News'. Please let me know details of such 'Update' courses, and your ideas of what crystallography should be in them.
Harry Powell described the 'Crystal Growing' projects organised by Phil Smith of the R.S.C. in the Thames Valley area. The crystals were on display upstairs in the commercial exhibition for members to see. Judging was to take place later during this meeting. Many schools enjoy these competitions. Others are less enthusiastic because 'Crystals' do not form part of the National Curriculum. There is a 'Materials' section, where we might try to insert a little about crystals. Does anyone know how we might get changes in the National Curriculum? Young children enjoy growing crystals and become very enthusiastic about it because it is something they can do for themselves. The same sense of wonder can be generated by models of crystals as you can on the faces of the children in the photographs which accompany the article about half term activities in the Oxford University Museum (published in the December issue).
There was general agreement that we should make more interesting pages on the BCA web site for the general public. We can try to make 'Picture Galleries' ourselves or can link to others who may have more resources that we have to make the images. Although photographs of beautiful crystals are needed, we should try to include additional information about the structure of the crystal, and probably allow people to rotate the structures over the web. Please send me news of any good websites and your ideas of what the BCA should be doing to improve the UK education in crystallography.
Kate Crennell
BCA Education officer
April 2001 email: [email protected]
Page last updated 12 Jan 2002
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