Abstract:

The university should play a key role in the transformation of society, effectively combining excellence in teaching, research, transfer and use of scientific and technical knowledge and its dissemination at all levels. One of the difficulties we encountered in the teaching-learning process (TL) of crystallography is the development by students of the skills related to the crystal chemistry (CC), a discipline that describes the relationships between chemical composition and internal structure of the crystalline materials. The assimilation and use of the body of knowledge of CC requires intensive use of a well-developed spatial vision, besides having an adequate base of chemistry and mathematics.

The group IMaCris / MaKrisI therefore seeks to develop a tool to support non-presential teaching, accessible on the Internet, allowing the acquisition of skills and competencies inherent to the CC, in a comprehensive manner:
a) To know some basic concepts of atoms and ions (periodic table of the elements, Bohr and Schrodinger model, electron configurations, ...).
b) To identify the packings of spheres, coordination polyhedra types and interstitial voids.
c) To recognize structures types based on only packing spheres or on closest-packing them with (partially) filled tetrahedral or/and octahedral sites.
d) To study of structures with complex anionic groups such as silicates.

Also important are cross-cutting skills to be acquired by students. The use of this tool promote students:
a) To learn to use basic computer applications (downloading, word processing, presentations ....) that is deficiency detected every year.
b) To make an overall assessment of the work during their studies, not only in classroom activities.
c) To be able to address, individually, the challenge of implementing what they learned in their period of university studies degree.

In particular, we want to help students to be able to further demonstrate to the Society that the resources used in their formation have been well invested, solving a specific problem. We must translate the importance of motivation, ie: "I do not just depend on others but I have to organize my own learning"

We thank the Educational Advisory Service / Hezkuntzarako Laguntza Zerbitzua (SAE / HELAZ) of the UPV / EHU, funding for Educational Innovation Project (2009-2011) for the development of this teaching material.