sciencewoman | August 1, 2008August Scientiae is here! Yay! Cherish at Faraday's Cage is where you put Schroedinger's Cat has done a phenomenal job of pulling together great posts on the topic of transitions.
Perfect reading for transitioning for work to weekend, me thinks.
Thanks Cherish and all of the Scientiae contributors.
skookumchick | July 31, 2008Just over a month ago I was just starting the main part of the National Women's Studies Association conference. I finally have a few minutes now to share with you some of the ideas and sessions I went to at the conference.
Sorry it's not liveblogging - there wuz no Internetz at the conference center *gasp*.
I pretty much just sat in the science and technology studies sessions, with the exception of the initial keynote address. A caveat - if you are the author or also attended the session, please feel free to correct my recollection! NWSA is a hard conference for me to sit in, as it requires…
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…
sciencewoman | July 29, 2008Even though fall classes won't start for a few more weeks, we are already being asked to submit our spring schedules. I'll be teaching two classes, each with labs, that I will have previously taught. It's a little daunting to think about so many hours in the classroom, but the reward will be a lighter load the following fall. (And I know that some of you routinely teach four classes, so that helps keep it in perspective.)
But, oh experienced teachers and schedule gurus, how shall I arrange my classes?
Here's my current thinking:
How would you arrange it? Will Wednesday just about kill me?…
sciencewoman | July 28, 2008As Alice has reminded us, the theme for this month's Scientiae is "transitions." Seems like a totally appropriate thing to be contemplating as I gear up for the next academic year. A few months ago, I reflected on my lessons learned as a first year faculty member. I felt like I'd learned a lot but still had a ways to go before I really felt up to speed. Maybe it's optimism generated by a few months away from the classroom, but now I'm feeling much more comfortable in my role as a not-quite-so-new member of the department.
For one thing, classes start in about a month, and I actually know…
skookumchick | July 28, 2008Remember that Cherish of Faraday's Cage is Where You Put Schroedinger's Cat is hosting Scientiae for August and that posts on your transitions are due to her by tomorrow.
Me? I'm tapped out. I suck. But hopefully you don't and will write something really great. Or submit a past post that is relevant. Pleeese? Thanks!
sciencewoman | July 28, 2008At long last, Minnow and I are back on terra firma in Mystery City. Fortunately, our trip home went much more smoothly than our travel to Midwest. Unfortunately, it's looking like I've got a good few days of email-box unclogging, grocery restocking, unpacking (home and field gear), bill paying, etc. before I can really settle into a productive routine again. But I'm really excited to be back to regular access to a computer and the internets again, because I've got a couple of posts in mind, and a bunch of linkies to pass along. But first, there's a stack of mail that's dangerously close to…
skookumchick | July 27, 2008The New York Times reports that the Princeton review is including a "green rating" in their next ranking of colleges in the US. While I think college rankings is pretty much a popularity contest, I think this incorporation of some kind of rating of environmental impact and sustainability is a step in the right direction. And not just because my husband is getting a job at my university (W00T!) to do sustainability work.
I am working on a post about sustainability from our trip to Europe, but in the meantime, reflecting on Purdue's past considerations of the environmental is pretty dismal.…
skookumchick | July 27, 2008I'm a This American Life junkie - I completely agree with the woman in the TAL ad who says she can't eat crunchy foods while listening to it in case she misses something. I always seem to be doing something else Sundays at noon when it is broadcast on my local NPR station, so I tend to download it as a podcast and listen to it as I drive back and forth between Indiana and Illinois. (This means I'm sometimes a couple weeks behind the broadcast episode.) And while I invariably find the stories compelling, gripping, moving, and educational (such as the episode on the Giant Pool of Money which…
skookumchick | July 22, 2008Finally, a thoughtful article about women and work in the NYT. This quote I found particularly important:"When we saw women starting to drop out in the early part of this decade, we thought it was the motherhood movement, women staying home to raise their kids," Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, which did the Congressional study, said in an interview. "We did not think it was the economy, but when we looked into it, we realized that it was."
Food for thought: how does this manifest itself in science and engineering jobs particularly? Or is it…
skookumchick | July 22, 2008As you know, I have just returned from a 3-week visit to Europe, where a main event was attending the Research in Engineering Education Symposium (REES) in Davos, Switzerland between July 8-10. Before I forget the experience entirely, let me share some highlights.
The conference was attended by about 75 people who presented around 57 papers in an unusual and helpful format: the papers consisted of "extended abstracts," no more than 5 pages in length, and were distributed in advance. If you attended a session (90 minutes, three papers), you were expected to have read the abstracts of that…
skookumchick | July 21, 2008
W00T! Although for a lower price than we had hoped, oh well. But a really good closing date, woo hoo! Now on to the inspection drama... apparently we are to anticipate 4 inspectors: radon, termite, general paid for by the buyers, and the bank's inspector. Keep your fingers crossed...
skookumchick | July 21, 2008
I'm back in the Midwest, and after a debilitating migraine yesterday, back in West Lafayette today. I'm digging out of my email and trying to catch up on student work and mail and the new and interesting weed-based disaster area that is my backyard, and rather wishing I was instead back here at The Orchard in Grantchester CAMBS, waiting for divine inspiration like Rupert Brooke or Virginia Woolf. Without the early deaths, of course.
I should have something new for you to read tomorrow, though. For now, back to it...
sciencewoman | July 18, 2008So I attended a pedagogy workshop this week and I brought Minnow along. For those not keeping track, she's now almost 18 months old and still going strong with the nursing (>= 2 x/day, >=2x/night). When I signed up for the workshop, I'd intended her to stay with my mom in Midwest, but in the end she came with me instead. The workshop organizers have been fantastically accommodating, and I want to give a shout-out to the other participants who have been super-friendly and helpful. (Especially, Kim. Thanks!)
But I still feel like a trouble maker. There are plenty of other moms here. Some…
sciencewoman | July 17, 2008John Tierney had a piece in Tuesday's New York Times on "A new frontier for Title IX: Science." Anyone who's read anything by Tierney before knows to expect anti-woman idiocy, but the Times dignified his piece by putting it not in the opinion section, but in the science section. And that poor editorial decision makes the piece worth responding too.
If you haven't yet read the article, here's how Tierney starts out:
The members of Congress and women's groups who have pushed for science to be "Title Nined" say there is evidence that women face discrimination in certain sciences, but the quality…
skookumchick | July 16, 2008One of the risks of traveling (two more days left! :-( ) is that you miss things like Scientiae. Podblack has posted the July Scientiae here on "a voice in the crowd" and Cherish has posted the call for posts for August's Scientiae here on transitions. Go read Podblack's post, and submit something fabulous for Cherish's carnival. And thanks to both for hosting!
sciencewoman | July 15, 2008This week I'm attending a workshop on pedagogy and I'm hearing lots of interesting ideas from people teaching really exciting and innovative courses. They are incorporating service learning, multi-week projects, location-centric courses, and intro courses for particular audiences (say, business majors). They are doing cool case studies, fun field activities, integrating current events, and designing real world applications. It's inspiring, and honestly, a little overwhelming. (And this is only the second day!)
Right now I'm contemplating revising my intro course, but I'm not sure when I'll be…
sciencewoman | July 14, 2008While some dismiss the Midwest as "flyover states" and locals decry a brain drain that admittedly I am part of, non-human species seem to be arriving in the area in droves. Here's a pictorial tour of some of the exotic species that have recently settled in the area.
The yellow flower in the middle ground of the pictures is wild parsnip - a really nasty invasive exotic. It also causes a nasty "burn" when it comes in contact with your skin and leaves a brown mark that can last for years. (Renewable energy is quite a bit deal in this part of the Midwest - there are a lot of wind farms being…
sciencewoman | July 13, 2008HI everyone,
Sorry for the silence...I expected to be able to get at least one or two blog posts off in the past two weeks, but being away from home, with no childcare, and with the added demands of being a daughter and a sister, on top of the usual roles of mother, wife, scientist, and professor, have left me feeling quite overworked. I'm looking forward to returning to the routine of life in Mystery City in a few weeks.
But actually, I am having a great deal of fun: reading books, playing with Minnow, talking with family and childhood friends, and enjoying different scenery. Some people…
skookumchick | July 10, 2008
We've been in Davos, Switzerland for almost a week. I've been attending the Research in Engineering Education Symposium, and my husband has been hiking his little feet off. Before the conference, we had a gorgeous day of hiking, including past this meadow. The flowers are spectacular, as are the rest of the mountain views. At the end of this hike was a little restaurant, along with a bunch of cheerful Bavarians who bought us local beer and taught us the prost song.
I'll blog about the conference (along with the NWSA conference from mid-June) once I get back to the States. Tomorrow we…