Crystal growing competition for high school students in Argentina (Póster)

FLORENCIA DI SALVO; ELEONORA FREIRE; VALERIA FUERTES; GRISELDA POLLA; MARICEL RODRÍGUEZ; DIEGO LAMAS; RICARDO BAGGIO; SEBASTIÁN KLINKE; SEBASTIÁN SUÁREZ

Hyderabad

Congreso; 24th Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography; 2017

International Union of Crystallography (IUCr)

The first Crystal Growing Competition for highschool students in Argentina was launched as part of the activities that theArgentinean Association of Crystallography (AACr) developed to celebrate theInternational Year of Crystallography 2014 (IYCr2014). Due to the greatsuccess, and high number of students and teachers participating, new editionshave taken place the following years (2nd and 3rd competitions in 2015 and2016, respectively and the current edition in 2017). The activity is sponsoredby the IUCr, CONICET (Argentinean Science Council), the Argentinean Ministry ofScience, Innovation and Technology and State Universities such as, UNSAM(2014-2017), UNC (2016) and UBA (2015 and 2017). Based on IUCr suggestion [1]and successful previous experiences in other countries [2], we planned thefirst program and guidelines of the activity in 2014. The information of thecompetition is available in our website and Facebook page, and includes:guidelines, crystal growing experiences, previous editions winner projects anduseful links related to crystal growing and crystallography [3]. The activitytakes place from March to November and it is mainly divided in three parts.During Part I (March to June) we offer training courses to teachers. It is afive hours course covering the topics: introduction to crystalline solids,basis of X-ray diffraction and crystallisation, crystal growing experiences anddetails of the Argentinean Competition. Approximately 40 courses are deliveredevery year covering all the areas of the country and with the assistance ofabout 1000 participants. During Part II the students develop the crystalgrowing experiences using exclusively the allowed substances (sugar, sodiumchloride, copper sulfate, borax and potassium alum) and then, create a video ora report to show their work to the evaluation committee. Deadline is aboutfirst days of September. After evaluation, winners and honorary diplomas areannounced. Around 350 to 500 projects have participated of the competitionevery year. Part III comprehends the Final of the Competition; this event takesplace every year during one day of the first week of November. In 2014 it washeld in Mar del Plata, Province of Buenos Aires, in 2015 in the University ofBuenos Aires, City of Buenos Aires and in 2016 in National University ofCordoba, City of Córdoba. In this wonderful and emotive event the winners (15groups approximately) are invited to present their projects (crystals) and aposter. Honorary diploma projects are also invited to participate of this eventand show their crystals. The day ends with the awards ceremony of the CrystalGrowing Competition. Every year, everyone participating of the Argentineancontest has a chance to participate in the International Crystal GrowingCompetition. Argentina had excellent results in every edition and what is moreimportant, it was always the country with the higher number of submittedprojects. Through this exciting, funny and hands-on scientific experience,crystallography and other related scientific fields are promoted along the highschool community across the country being also, a way to encourage youth tocontinue exploring science and developing their scientific skills. References: [1] http://www.iycr2014.org/participate/crystal-growing-competition-2017, [2] http://www.lec.csic.es/concurso/, [3]http://www.cristalografia.com.ar/index.php/concurso-cristales-2016