EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTS

• Colouring Books and Pads
• 3D model building kits
• Tiling kits
• Minimum energy surfaces
• Molecular models and kits
• Software
• books
• Activity books for schools, mainly Primary
• Films/videos
• CD-ROMs

•  Colouring books: These are paper pads printed with a range of lattice patterns for colouring.
  
  • Hazel Mill Pattern Pads, 4 pads each with 36 pages, 6 designs
    
  • Altair designs, a range of patterns printed in light grey, now newly computer generated and available from Tarquin publications. (14 Sep 00)
    
•   3D Model Building Kits:
  
  • Solid plastic shapes
    products: Galt 'Jovo' and 'Multilink', Polydron, Tarquin 'Morphun blocks' Taskmaster
  • Outline plastic shapes
    products: Multipoly, Model '8' Taskmaster, Polydron 'Framework' (11 April 97) Astro-logix
  • card cut out shapes, MATS, make many types of polyhedra ATM (11 April 97)
  • paper cutout books
    products: Tarquin publications, 'make shapes'. etc....
  • cutout models to download from here
    products: spacefilling models, amodel of calcite, a mobile of the Platonic solids (15 Dec 00)
•  Tiling kits:
  
  • 'Super Octons' Galt
  • 5 fold symmetry series of jigsaws, mostly based on penrose tiles Pentaplex 10 Aug 95
  • Mathematical Activity Tiles, MATS, from the ATM (11 Apr 97)
•  Minimum energy surfaces: 'Improbabubbles' a series of wire polyhedral skeletons used with washing up liquid to show soap film surfaces. Beevers 4 Feb 94
•  Molecular Models and kits:
  • Complete rigid models of crystal structures, made from the co-ordinates of the structure, for use in teaching or research, constructed on a scale of 1mm to 1 Angstrom. Beevers Miniature Models 4 Feb 94
  • Molymod is a system of solid coloured plastic spheres which snap together to form van der Waals molecular models, and alternate scale includes bonds to snap in to make 'ball & stick' models 23 Apr 99
  • Molecular Models for teaching and research - the orbit system of multiple bond centre pegs and plastic tubes cut to length to give a scale of 3cm =100pm Also Minit systems and larger ones for lecture demonstrations. May be purchased as a box of parts to make many structures, or as kits for individual molecules. Cochranes 30 June 95
    
    
  • Astro-logix construction toy. Solar system contains fixed size plastic tubes and connectors allowing 3,4 or 5 tubes to make your own polyhedra including the Platonic Solids (23 Jan 02)
    
    
  • Sets of wooden models with explanatory booklet describing the 32 crystallographic point groups, as used in the Geology Department of the Univeristy of Oviedo, Spain 3 Oct 95
•  Software:
  • Logo
    'LogoTile' (NCET) 6 Dec 93
  • patterns
    'Vector' 4mation
  • polyhedral display
    !PolyDraw, !PolyNet, !Stellate
  • tiling
    'Escher' (NCET) 6 Dec 93 (see Times Educational Supplement 8 October 1993)
    The Tiling Pack, contains 'Mosaic' and 'Newtiles' (NCET) 6 Dec 93
    'Versatile' Oak Solutions 30 June 95
    
•  Books: These may be bought from any bookseller, and also from specialist suppliers like Tarquin Publications, and the Polycrystal Book service. They are ordered by the first main word in the title, first general books for anyone's amusement, then ones for schools
  • 'The Art of Microcomputer Graphics' J.McGregor and A Watt published by Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-4435-2 2 versions, one for the BBC micro, the other for PC clones. Includes chapters on 'Symmetry and two dimensional ornamentation' (including the 7 'frieze' or 'band' groups and the 17 'wallpaper' groups) , and 'tessellations' ( including a tessellation layout planner, Penrose tiles and Escher patterns ) with the BASIC programs to create all examples.
  • 'The Geometrical Foundation of Natural Structure' A source book of design by Robert Williams, publisher Dover 1972, reprinted 1979 ISBN 0 486 23729 X a general description of information on geometric form in 2 and 3 dimensions including packing of spheres, polyhedra packing and space filling
  • 'An Introduction to Tessellations' D.Seymour, J. Britton from Tarquin
  • 'Mathematical Models' H.M.Cundy, A.P.Rollett, 1st edition 1951 Oxford University Press, 3rd edition 1981 reprinted by Tarquin Publications ISBN 0 906212 20 0 A practical guide to making models in plane geometry, including tessellations, and polyhedra. This book was born in a classroom and arose from the interest of a Mathematical Sixth form in the construction of simple models.
  • 'Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions' Martin Gardner, publisher Penguin ISBN 01402 0748 1 sections on hexaflexagons, polyominoes, and 'More mathematical Puzzles and Diversions' sections on tetraflexagons, and the Platonic solids reprinted from his monthly column in 'Scientific American' 4 Feb 94
  • 'Order in Space' Keith Critchlow publisher Thames and Hudson 1969 reprinted 1976 ISBN 0 500 34033 1 includes descriptions of some partially-regular space filling solids, an intuitive rather than a rigorous approach
  • 'Polyhedron Models', 'Dual Models', and 'Spherical Models', M.J.Wenninger, Cambridge University Press. A series of books with detailed instructions on how to make 3 dimensional models of uniform polyhedra and some stellated forms from card, each illustrated with photographs of the models made by the author.
  • 'Tilings and patterns' An introduction. G.Shepheard publisher W.H.Freeman
    Books with activities for schools (mainly primary)
  
  • 'Mathematics with Polydron' Bob Ansell, Lyndon baker, Ian Harris, publisher Polydron UK Ltd ISBN 0 9523815 0 8
    A spiral bound A4 sized booklet with 36 activities which use the Polydron pieces to learn about tesselations and polyhedra. Each activity has a teacher page on the left, and a student page on the right, which may be freely copied for a class of many students. 30 June 95
  • 'A world of mathematics' G.Marshall published by Nelson
  • 'Quicksilver Maths' A series for the enthusiastic, 'Follow the Shapes' published by Basil Blackwell, Oxford
  • 'Task maths- Volume 4' B and D.Ball published by Nelson 1991 has sections on patterns made with lines and polygons, Hindu/Sikh patterns, and Escher ones as well as tessellations and the use of Logo.
  • 'Towards mathematics Set 3' J.A.Glenn. D.A.Sturgess published by Schofield and Sims
   
• Films/videos:
  • 'The five platonic solids' narration by Geoffrey Palmer from Polydron may be appreciated by 10 year olds, not suitable for adults
  • 'Leonardo' a computer graphics video made by IBM UK Scientific Centre an appreciation of the geometrical work of Leonardo da Vinci, shows animated rotating Platonic solids and some of their truncations.
  • The Vega Science Trust produces programmes for network television which treat science as a cultural activity. there are several series:
    • Reflections on Science
      includes VRS-7 "How X-rays Cracked the Structure of DNA"
    • Royal Instituion Discourses
    • Science Masterclasses
    • The Science Archive
   
• CD-ROMS
  • Crystallographic Space Group Diagrams and Tables from J.Cockroft at Birkbeck College
  • IUCRXVIII a supplement to Acta Cryst A55 1999

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