Teaching session

This session covered short courses and innovative teaching using the Internet or personal microcomputers. B-C Wang described an ACA course which includes 8 days of general crystallography with hands-on structure solving, followed by 4 days on the techniques of crystallisation and structure refinement for macromolecules. K. Al-Sayed described a materials science course for MSc students given in Egypt.

D. Moss coordinated the development and use of several Internet based courses in structural molecular biology, beginning in 1996 with the 'Principles of Protein Structure'; a course on 'Powder Diffraction' is planned for October 1999. He highlighted the advantages and problems associated with teaching a world-wide class involving different time zones.

A. Fretwell spoke on the development of the MATTER project, now a set of some 30 modules on aspects of materials science available on CD-ROM, with an interactive demonstration of parts of the 'Crystallography' module. A Web based 'Diffraction' module is planned to be freely accessible on the Internet in October 1999.

R. Neder concluded the session with an interactive demonstration of his program using computer simulation as a teaching tool.

Kate Crennell and Karimat Al-Sayed