Outreach activities at the Argentinian Association of Crystallography (AACr)

Abstract

The Argentinian Association of Crystallography (AACr) is dedicated to promote crystallography all over the country, as well as to bring together groups working in this area of knowledge or employing it as a tool in their research projects. The variety of topics covered by the AACr is wide, in a similar way as in the IUCr. Although crystallography in Argentina dates back to the ´40s, the AACr was founded as a formal scientific association in 2004, on the occasion of the "National Workshop on Crystallography" held in the town of Villa Giardino, Province of Córdoba. The regular annual activities of the AACr include a scientific meeting (3 days), a school on crystallography (1 week) and a workshop (1 day). This year, these activities will be held in the city of Bahía Blanca at the end of October. Considering the importance of crystallography and the need for more dissemination to the general public and students, the AACr decided to organize several educational and outreach activities in Argentina, taking into advantage the great enthusiasm generated by the IYCr 2014. The following list summarizes the ongoing activities at the AACr: 1) Organization of a National Crystal Growing Contest for High School Students, which is nowadays on its fourth successful edition (see poster by Florencia Di Salvo et al.). This Contest also includes a series of crystallography workshops for teachers all around the country given by AACr researchers, 2) Talks and live experiments at the Tecnópolis Science Fair (see picture) and at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair, 3) Exhibitions and talks at the Scientific Cultural Center of the Argentinian Ministry of Science, 4) Exhibition at the Fair of Science and Technology ?Science Square? of the Matanza County in Buenos Aires, 5) Organization of the Workshop: ?From Atoms to Crystals: Workshop of Crystallography and Crystal Growing? aimed for primary school teachers in the city of Bariloche (see poster by Adriana Serquis et al.), and 6) Participation in the ?Buenos Aires Museum Night? with a structural biology stand showing protein crystals and three-dimensional protein structures obtained by X-ray diffraction. Many of these actions, launched with the same spirit of the IYCr 2014, have now become regular activities in our Association. The AACr would like to thank all our members, especially Vanesa Contini and Vanina Franco, for her help.