Educational experiences at "X-Ray Crystals" exhibition: the gypsum of Vezzano sul Crostolo (RE)

The General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2014 the International Year of Crystallography, after 100 years from the awarding of the first Nobel Prize for the discovery of X-ray diffraction by crystals. On this occasion, the Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences of Modena and Reggio Emilia University (Italy) and its Museum "Gemma 1786", organized an exhibition named Cristalli ai raggi X (Modena, 24 Jan.-29 Mar. 2015). The initiative involved the cooperation of many public and private partners and the active participation of twenty schools of different types and levels. An innovative aspect was the planned participation of high-school students to the fifty collateral events organized during the exhibition. The main purpose of Cristalli ai raggi X was to introduce non-specialists to the world of crystals and their properties, and to show how crystallography plays a role in the development of scientific disciplines. The display ended with the appreciation of 9,000 visitors and a hundred of guided tours for regional and extra-regional schools. The activity developed by the Manini Middle School of Vezzano sul Crostolo (Reggio Emilia province) involved 27 students of 13th-year-old. During an exhibition event opened to the public, they presented a study on the features of gypsum and the extraction history of the land where they come from and where, in the past, the gypsum was an important economic resource.