Women in Science

Introduction

We have been discussing the contributions of famous scientists who have revolutionized science. Many of these scientists have been men. However, there have been many women and other minorities who have contributed to the progress science has made.

The Task

• At the end of the project you should have a newsletter article of the specific female scientist you chose.
• Use any wordprocessing program and find a newsletter layout template to do your article.
• It should contain pictures of the person and/or pictures of co-workers and/or pictures of her contributions to science. Remember you have limited space.
• Also provide information on her early life and personal information.
• The editorial team is respnsible for collating the articles and getting out the newsletter in its final form.

Resources

You might want to consult some of the following web sites:

• 4000 years of Women in Science
• Women of the Marine Biology Laboratory in MA
• Women Physicists
• Women Biologists
• Women Mathematicians
• Women in Science, Math and Elsewhere
• Quick Newspaper-style columns

Process

• First you have to choose a partner and choose / define your roles.
• Next, you will choose a women scientist and to avoid replication, make her name known to the class by posting it on the bulletin board.
• Using the web sites listed above (or do a search of your own)to search for information on your scientist. Be sure to save some images to a folder on your disk to include in your report.
• Include the following information in your report:

Date and place of birth, Early life, Education, Work Experience, Scientific Discovery, The significance of her discovery, How her discovery affects our daily life, Her later or current life.
• Make sure your final report is typed in the newspaper layout format and that you include relevant images.

Evaluation

Your report will be evaluated as follows:

Advanced

• All group members participate in the research and presentation.
• Article includes relevant information and images.
• Information is concise and article is informative.
• Grammar and spelling are correct.
• Provides a complete article with the layout as it will appear in the school newsletter.

Satisfactory

• Most members participate in the research and presentation.
• Information is mostly relevant. Article contains mostly good images.
• Contains too much information but is informative.
• Very few grammar and spelling errors.
• Article is complete but not in the correct according the the required layout.

Beginning

• Group participation is unacceptable.
• Information is mostly not correct, images are poor / no images.
• Information is either too much or too scanty and not informative.
• Frequent grammatical and spelling errors.
• Article is incomplete.

Teacher's Note

Background

In order to emphasize the diversity within the scientific community, students need to learn that different kinds of people (race, sex, age, nationality) have contributed to science. It is important that students know (at the end of 8th grade according to the Benchmarks (AAAS, 1993)) that women and racial minorities have, until recently, been left out of much of the formal work of the science establishment. The few women or other minorities who overcame obstacles to pursue careers in science, were even then likely to have their work disregarded by the science establishment. Teachers should therefore emphasize science as a diverse line of work and encourage all children to consider a career in science / science-related fields.

Procedure

The activity can be adapted for any student at any level. It can be used as an introductory activity to net surfing and using multi-media in the classroom. 
A variation on the newsletter article would be to have students do a web page on the female scientist or other minority in science. The source codes for using newspaper layout or multiple columns in html is available at: http://129.7.160.125/wdd/issue1/column.html 
The activity can help in developing student writing skills and promoting the History of Science as recommended by the Benchmarks (AAAS, 1993) and the National Standards for Science Education (NAC, 1996).