Women in Science at

IowaTuesday, August 19

Day 1: Past

Introductions

Your Turn!• Name (+ nickname)• Hometown• Why you chose to come to Iowa• Your intended field of study• Why you’re interested in that field• Your favorite memory from this past summer

Course Overview• End Goal: Presenting class wiki page on Thursday as

a resource for yourselves, for other Honors students, and for other undergrads trying to understand what it means to be a woman pursuing a career in science

• To that end, we will generate research questions based on some initial readings that we can try to answer from archival research and interviews with current women scientists

• We probably won’t fully answer anything, but one goal of this course is to map the complexity and the openness of science careers, especially for women

Course Overview, Cont.

• Schedule on ICON and wiki• Shape of inquiry: hourglass (general to specific to

general)• Learning Objectives

o To develop a better understanding of the options and challenges that have faced female scientists in the past as well as their legacies and new developments for your generation

o To complicate the vision of a traditional career path without inspiring fear or anxiety ☺

o To use rhetorical methods of inquiry to explore our research questions from interdisciplinary perspectives

o To get practice working in small peer groups on student-centered and self-directed projects, since such settings are typical of Honors courses and science careers more generally and such work illustrates the importance of reaching out for support to the many resources available to you

o To demonstrate our learning through a wiki page that lists our research questions to provide a resource for ourselves and others, that includes interactive elements such as photos and links to develop multimodal composition skills, and that explains both our findings and our limitations (i.e. future directions) to enable others to build on our knowledge

Discussion Instructions

• In groups of 4, read assigned chapter from Nobel Prize Women in Science by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne

• Skim for most relevant material (limited time)• Make sure that at least one student is designated

as the recordero These won’t be the groups that you’re working with all class, so it

wouldn’t hurt for everyone to take some notes

• Will be discussing group insights as a class

Discussion Questions• What challenges did your assigned scientist face?

o Professionalo Personal

• What strategies did she use to overcome them?o How intentional were they?o To what extent were they outgrowths of her personality?o What role did luck play in her success?

• Is she a role model for aspiring scientists?o Male and female?o To what extent?

• Relevance of time and place

• What can we take away from her story?• What questions are you left with?

Forming Research Questions

• Generate research questions as a classo Can consider through historical research this afternoon and discussions

with current women scientists tomorrowo Need to be general enough to transcend one person’s experience, but

specific enough to make finding answers possibleo Some examples might include:

• How does having a male mentor or supervisor affect a female scientist's career?

• What different paths do women take to achieve careers in science?• What strategies do women use to establish themselves in

traditionally male fields of study?• What challenges do women face when trying to balance a career in

science with personal lives?o Write on board

• Select the four or five of greatest common interesto Sort into groups

This Afternoon• Meet at Iowa Women’s Archives

o 4th floor, Main Library

• Bring smartphone or digital camera, pencil, notebook/paper

• After 3:00-3:30 break, we will be meeting in the Sciences Libraryo Will need laptop for research

• Will meet back in this classroom first session tomorrow