2024/01/17 by Claire A. Murray, Helen E. Maynard‐Casely, Ross W. Harrington +4 · 1 voice · 2 citations
Chemistry · Social Sciences · #History and advancements in chemistry #Science Education and Pedagogy #Various Chemistry Research Topics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1107/s1600576724000207
openalex publication_date 2024/01/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/21
The growing pressure on school curricula has meant crystals and the science of crystallography have been cut from or made optional for many educational programs. This omission is a serious disservice to the history and understanding of modern sciences, given that crystallography underpins many of the greatest advancements in science over the past century, is a critical component of many modern research papers and patents, and has 29 Nobel Prizes awarded in the field. This contribution describes a simple activity to target classroom and public engagement with crystallography, using marshmallows or equivalent sweets/candy to represent atoms and cocktail sticks to represent bonds, together with examples of how crystals are studied and how they are useful. Though it has a simple basis, this activity can be extended in numerous ways to reflect the aims of the demonstrator, and a few of these are described.