talking science
skookumchick | September 23, 2009Look what showed up in my most recent issue of the NWSA Journal (NWSA=National Women's Studies Association)?
I'm in print! W00T! This co-authored paper is in the current issue, which is a special issue on "Inclusive Science" that came out of this conference last summer.
I'm pleased to be in the same lineup with Cindy Foor, whose fabulous paper on industrial engineering as "imaginary engineering" you should really read (the original paper came out of the NWSA conference a few years back), as well as Meg Upchurch, whose paper on on our problematic metaphor of glial cells as "housekeepers" is…
skookumchick | June 15, 2009Blog friend Pat Campbell and her colleagues Susan Metz, and Jennifer Weisman gave a great talk at JAM on getting your research message out to the press.
Key ideas, themselves tailored to this audience:
MEDIA SURPRISE: don't agree to an on the spot interview; research the journalist first. What part of the newspaper are they writing for? Who are they writing for? What is the angle? What is the deadline? Who else are they interviewing? Get background material on the journalist and have it written down.
HAVE A MESSAGE and tailor it to your audience. Your results are going to be…
skookumchick | June 10, 2009
Do you know a woman in science or engineering who has taken a career break
from her academic position?
The NSF-ADVANCE program at George Washington University is doing a study of women in career breaks, whether voluntary or not, to understand the pipeline of women professors in science and engineering we are conducting a NSF-sponsored survey on women in career breaks. They are interested in women who have completed their PhD or DSc, have been employed in an academic setting and were, or have been, in a career break for less than five years. They are seeking to interview such women to help…
skookumchick | February 6, 2009DLee has started a new carnival to highlight the contributions of awesome scientists and engineers, with the first one being focused on the contributions of African-American scientists and engineers (it being Black History Month and all).
(By the way, does anyone else think it is supercool to have a Black History Month when we finally have an African American president? I think so. Way cool. We're watching history being made!)
So. I want to profile someone I just learned about this very week, and who I have already talked about with my first-year students.
So. Have you ever heard of…
skookumchick | February 4, 2009Acmegirl and DLee facilitated a ScienceOnline2009 session about race and science, stemming from what happened last year where the session on gender and race really focused on gender and not race. I've finally written up my notes, and what follows is a rough summary of the conversation. For those who attended, please feel free to annotate -- and note again the presence of the new "Diversity in Science" Carnival! More after the jump.
DLee started with talking about the image of scientists, and in particular the question of why images persist that scientists are white men. One way is…
skookumchick | January 17, 2009So ScienceWoman and I will be sharing live-blogging duties today, at least until our batteries give out. We're both starting at the Open Access publishing session, although I was also intrigued by Peggy Kolm's session about science fiction on science blogs. I'll have to catch up with her later.
Also, please note: this is liveblogging. There may be grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, unfinished sentences. But it's hot off the press. I'll try to come back and clean things up afterwards. FYI.
I wanted to go to the open access talk because my department is talking about publication needs…
skookumchick | October 31, 2008My colleague Donna Riley just sent me a way-cool call for papers: inclusive science, for a special issue of the National Women's Studies Association Journal. Get your writing hats on -- papers are due January 15! The rest of the call is after the fold.
INCLUSIVE SCIENCE: ARTICULATING THEORY, PRACTICE, AND ACTION
Call for papers for a Special Cluster of Papers in the
National Women's Studies Association Journal
It is no secret that there is a national crisis in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), particularly in terms of the involvement of women and people of…
sciencewoman | September 10, 2008A few weeks ago I solicited suggestions for how NOT to give a talk, and I was overwhelmed and greatly amused by the volume and enthusiasm of responses.
At about the same time, Dave Ng over at The World's Fair was thinking along the same lines. He claims to have created the most evil powerpoint slide ever. Take a look; it's pretty heinous. He also made a totally awesome video montage of things to avoid while speaking publicly.
I'm not as video savvy as Dave, nor will I lay claim to the absolute slide ever. But I did manage to put together a pretty darn awful powerpoint presentation. Before I…
sciencewoman | August 20, 2008One class I'm teaching this semester is a senior seminar focusing on oral communication. It should be a really fun class, and I'm looking forward to it. A major assignment for the semester will involve the students presenting a journal-club style talk on a scientific paper. Before I make them give a talk though, it only seems fair that I should have to give one myself. So I am going to borrow an idea from a colleague and attempt to give my talk using all the things one should NOT do during an oral presentation. (This is going to be really painful for me to do - but hopefully also kind of fun…
sciencewoman | July 31, 2008I am an inveterate and unapologetic listener of NPR. I love to feel like I am getting something useful out of being stuck in traffic and I find their reporting to generally be much better and more in-depth than that of the print media. However, this week, All Things Considered's reporting has really irritated me. Not just because they almost exclusively focus on the horse-race aspects of the presidential race, but because they've been doing a pretty poor job of reporting their statistics in a correct and understandable way.
First the confusing example, from yesterday's story about McCain and…
skookumchick | April 5, 2008I'm sitting in panels and sessions at this great conference on Engineering, Social Justice and Peace which is the 7th annual conference of this kind. Here are only some of the snippets of what I've been seeing and hearing:
I heard yesterday of exciting and courageous curricular attempts to integrate social justice into engineering education. I heard of a course called "Engineering and Social Justice" offered through engineering and sociology at Queen's University, a first-year course where projects were focused on social justice, year-long experiences for students in Engineers Without…
sciencewoman | December 18, 2007It is becoming an annual tradition to post my open letter to the Coca-Cola Corporation. Maybe one of these year's Coke will listen.
Dear Coca-Cola Company,
While I have been known to enjoy your products, and never those of your competitor, I am saddened by the misinformation you are spreading in your current advertising campaign. I am referring to the television spot in which you show a family of polar bears who espy a partying penguins and slide down the hill to join the merriment. It's a very cute advert, but is totally factually wrong. And it contributes to the misconceptions I see my…
sciencewoman | December 11, 2007
Sheril Kirschenbaum and Chris Mooney at The Intersection are spearheading a push to get the candidates running for president to address issues of science and public policy. Their goal:
Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment,…
sciencewoman | October 12, 2007I am so pleased that the thousands of scientists who have contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are being recognized for the work with the Nobel Peace Prize. And Al Gore is not a bad guy either.
Hearing the news on the radio this morning made my day.
sciencewoman | October 11, 2007I'm almost done grading a massive mound of papers by my freshman. There's the usual assortment of dismal writing, hilarious colloquialisms, and insight. It's been an exhausting task (minnow's teething hasn't helped), but also a useful one, because the papers have exposed the continuing misconceptions my students have about -ology.
The assignment was to select a recent news article that was relevant to -ology, summarize it, and analyze it. Specifically, I wanted them to put the article in context, offer an opinion on the topic, and assess the credibility of the piece. Most students had no…