Crystallography Outreach programme at Hyderabad High Schools (India)

Coordinators: Nandikotkur Padmaja (IASc) and M. S. Rajesh (IISc)

With support and motivation from Professor Gautam R. Desiraju, President of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr)

The objectives of the Crystallography Outreach programme at Hyderabad were to:

• propagate the importance of crystallography in everyday life to school children and to increase awareness of the science of crystallography;
• teach fundamentals of crystals and crystallography; 
• illustrate the universality of Science and the importance of Science and its application to humanity, referring to crystallography’s contributions to medical science and to other areas of humanity;
• brief about careers opportunities in Science;
• convey information about UNESCO and its work to provide high-quality education to children as a fundamental human right.    

N. Padmaja's lecture on crystallography was greatly enjoyed by the Principal and schoolchildren. Her fluency in English and Telugu was well received!

M. S. Rajesh gave an introductory talk about crystallography and played the video Celebrating Crystallography, in which the children became fully immersed.   

An IYCr2014 and crystallography quiz question paper was a huge hit with the children, many of them achieving excellent scores.  

The Thank you, Dorothy poster prepared to advertise the International Year was quite new to students and there were questions about the life and career of Dorothy Hodgkin. Students who answered the quiz questions received gifts. All the children immensely liked a presentation about crystallization in chocolates, as well as the opportunity to sample real chocolates and candy! The children also appreciated the introductory English Crystallography matters booklet.

Neighbouring schools have asked for similar crystallography programmes.

See the photo gallery