Senior chemists sometimes struggle with PC applications. Why not get help from younger people who, unlike their elders, have already grown up with these programmes? Holger Bengs took the initiative back in 2007 in the early stages of the Senior Experts in Chemistry (SEC) and organised the first computer course "Young helps old," which focused on the Microsoft Office package.
Students from Goethe University Frankfurt play a central role in all courses: they sacrifice their time - even on a Saturday - and have the patience to teach SEC members the routine and special tricks of software applications. Four such computer courses have now taken place.
Nachr. Chem. 2007, 55, 459
Nachr. Chem. 2008, 56, 70
Under the guidance of Denise Schütz and Julian Scherr, 15 senior chemists learnt what pitfalls to watch out for when opening a Facebook account and how to navigate this social medium safely and without revealing more about themselves than desired.
Nachr. Chem. 2013, 61, 965
Although every member of the SEC can create texts and presentations with MS Office, many lack a profound knowledge of the principles of style sheets. Styles are extremely efficient tools for creating appealing texts and presentations.
The workshop "Formatting in Word and PowerPoint" took place on 3 Jun 2017 at the Beilstein Computer Center of the Goethe University Frankfurt on the Riedberg campus. Chemistry students Sebastian Balser and Julian Scherr were the lecturers. Mr Balser focused on Word and Mr Scherr on PowerPoint. Both sections were structured in the same way: A short lecture demonstrated the essential functions, and then the course participants had more than an hour to create a Word document and a PowerPoint presentation themselves using perfectly crafted practice scenarios. Mr Balser and Mr Scherr were always on hand to help.
On behalf of the course participants, the workshop organiser, Wolfgang Gerhartz, expressed his sincere thanks to the two instructors. Each participant was able to take home plenty of practice material to put what they had learnt into practice at home. This means that the aim of the course could be achieved: to easily achieve appealing results in daily work with Word and PowerPoint.
A small photo gallery gives an impression of the course on Whitsun Saturday 2017, see below.