CrystalinItaly

The actions for celebrating IYCr2014 in Italy are coordinated by the Associazione Italiana di Cristallografia (AIC), with the contribution of the Società Italiana di Mineralogia e Petrologia (SIMP) and of the Società Italiana di Luce di Sincrotrone (SILS). All the activities are gathered in a dedicated website, www.iycr2014.it, created to convey to the public and media all the information related to crystallography and on the activities that will take place in Italy. The general initiatives organized in Italy intend to be the basis for long term actions with two main objectives: to reach general public and to reach especially high school teachers. The high school teachers are key figures to build a better perception of crystallography for the next generations: previous experience in outreach and divulgation towards schools shows that teachers are highly influential to direct students' future careers. To reach high school teachers and to increase their motivation in teaching crystallography in the science syllabus, a completely new teaching pamphlet has been created, to provide a written modern, clear, and friendly instrument to learn and explain the simplest concepts related to crystallography, linked to everyday life and complemented with simple experiments. This will be distributed freely to teachers and students. To reach general public is a second important aim, where the challenge is to increase awareness of the impact that crystallography has on daily life, culture and history. An initiative to bring crystallography at everybody's door has been launched, consisting in the creation of a list of the Italian crystallographic sites, that has been put on the web site and will be implemented in an applet for smartphones. Moreover, the exhibition 'Cristalli!' is being organized in several places, having being launched in Padua with thousands of visitors in 5 months.