EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE BRITISH CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION (BCA). K.M.Crennell, British Crystallographic Association

BCA educational projects are described which have taken place since the last IUCr Congress; 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 most recently, the setting up of BCA home pages on the World Wide Web (WWW) URL http://www.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.

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. Photographs are shown of British children visiting 'Set95', the UK Festival of Science Week, trying the blocks. Planar nets of the shapes are also provided so that a class of children can try constructing cardboard models for themselves.

The report of the educational software survey for microcomputers was published in the June 95 issue of 'Crystallography News'; some results will be shown together with diagrams of screens from educational software, some of which is freely available over the Internet. This list is now on the WWW and is continually updated as readers send me information on their programs: newer programs have links to WWW sites where free 'demos' are available.

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.