sciencewoman | September 5, 2009Let's see if I can remember how to do this blogging thing....
Proposal 1: We started out doing it by the book. Picked a good research topic, and then found the appropriate RFP, with a deadline comfortably in the future. We had weekly brainstorming meetings to refine our research objectives and were just beginning to write some text, when something shook us. Suddenly our experimental design didn't seem quite so clever or practical anymore. We spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out new ways to approach the problem, and debating whether we were really going to go after the RFP after all.…
skookumchick | September 1, 2009I don't know about you, but here at Purdue, the administration is doing everything it can to freak us all out about the prospect of a flu pandemic. We're getting emails about how we need to figure out ways to cover class material if the university closes, we need ways to contact our students with "the new plan" if everyone comes down with flu, ways to help students catch back up if they're out with the flu, and for those of us who teach first-year students, telling students about the student health center and how they need to get a receipt when they go visit it so as to excuse their absences…
skookumchick | August 30, 2009I just had my 2nd "Sunday meeting with myself." I looked back at my list from last week, and was thrilled to be able to cross almost everything off. It helped to map tasks onto my available schedule, although I completely underestimated how much time I needed for class prep this week. I'll get better on that (both in decreasing the time, and more accurately estimating), I think. It felt very satisfying to cross off all those things, and see a full but completed list. Yay for me.
Priorities this week:
Revisions on a paper due Tuesday
Page proofs on a paper due Wednesday
Reading over a…
skookumchick | August 30, 2009Whew, we've survived the first week of school. Only 1 week in, and I'm already overwhelmed: 25 things on my Omnifocus list of things to do, and one of them, due Wednesday, is "revise paper." Yikes. No wonder I'm blogging first.
I decided during our road trip that I was giving short shrift in my life to the little things that really matter to me, the little reminders that make me feel like life isn't just about my job. Some of those things include:
singing in a choir
going to the farmer's market
gardening
reading novels before going to bed
cooking dinner for others out of lots of fun things…
skookumchick | August 27, 2009A missive from FairerScience blog guru Pat Campbell:Want a job?
This is not a title you see much in this economy; but we and our partners at Northwestern have two job openings: Social Science Research Associate (5 years). and Social Scientist Research Associate/Postdoctoral Fellow (2 years).
I am so excited about this study-- we are looking at the processes and criteria young women are using to make career decisions in the biological/biomedical sciences, especially related to academic careers, as they progress from undergraduate into PhD training, comparing students with different…
skookumchick | August 26, 2009The September Scientiae announcement is up, to be hosted by Academic (w00t! another engineer blogger!) over at her place, Journeys of an Academic. She has announced the theme: "Inspiration or Desperation?" with a submission date of September 4, so really you have no time to procrastinate. Just submit something fabulous, as you usually do. Ta.
skookumchick | August 25, 2009A realization had over dinner, looking up "cream cheese" and "fromage frais" on our new iPhones: the iPhone is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. At least while attached to Wikipedia.
That's got to be work an app -- something with "Don't Panic" in large friendly letters on the front. I'm not sure this counts. You're welcome, App Store programmers.
skookumchick | August 25, 2009One of the things I thought about on our road trip was the role that blogging plays in my life. In case it hasn't been totally obvious, I have not had much of a blogging groove over the summer, despite the appearance of more time.
I realized that I need to actually build in blogging time into my schedule (yikes!) to be able to meet the commitment I made to Science Woman, but I also realized that blogging time would allow me to record some of my reflections on "how things are going."
However, I also have been having lots of stuff going on IR-working-L that I haven't known how to blog about…
skookumchick | August 23, 2009As usual, I find myself at the beginning of a semester trying to figure out how to balance my life a bit more better, and perhaps contradictorily, how I can structure my days better to be able to find time to recharge.
Because of my work with ADVANCE, I'm interested in understanding the work experiences of all women faculty in STEM, including and particularly women of color. To this end, when a colleague who is the director of the Black Cultural Center on campus recommended the book The Black Academic's Guide to Winning Tenure Without Losing Your Soul by Kerry Ann Rockquemore and Tracey…
skookumchick | August 23, 2009Okay. I've been back a week now, and am getting myself a little recombobulated, so now it's time to jump back in to blogging. Thanks for your patience while I've been offline.
Our trip out west was phenomenal. As I've mentioned, my parents have a cabin north of Vancouver, and it's really the place we try gather -- holidays are nice, but really we all want to go to the cabin. My husband and I decided to drive because then we could visit friends along the way, and then we figured it would make less CO2 than flying to visit all those folks.
We started in Indiana, and spent nights in Nebraska…
skookumchick | August 17, 2009I'm back. In person, and online. And not all that thrilled about it, but I'll cope. ;-) I'll regale you with updates on our fab trip out west, and on how my fall is shaking out, including teaching and research plans, but I first have to finish reading a dissertation that is being defended tomorrow, and writing an activity report, also due tomorrow. Offlinelessness has its price, but at this point I still think it has been worth it.
In the interim, let me share with you a video of a tug accident that happened in the Skookumchuck Narrows near my parents' cabin. The Skookumchuck (Chinook…
sciencewoman | August 14, 2009Dear asshat,
When you are only carrying a small garment bag and attache case, and you encounter a mother struggling into the airport parking deck elevator with a toddler in hand, giant carseat over one shoulder, suitcase rolling behind and attache case over the other shoulder, the correct thing to do is NOT to say: "Boy, you sure don't believe in traveling light." and then get off the elevator, striding toward the shuttle bus stop with nary a backward glance. The correct thing to do is say "Would you like a little help with your load?" and then help her carry something to the bus stop. It…
sciencewoman | August 12, 2009A. Non Mouse, who blogs over at NaCl and hv, has just written a great series of posts about her strategies for successfully bringing a baby to a conference. Check out her how-to posts on childcare, transportation, gear, and accommodations.
This is a subject that is close to my heart, and one that I've written about before (here, here, and here on a trip when Minnow was 9 months old, here at 18 months, and here's a manifesto on the subject that was featured in last year's Open Lab ).
And it's funny timing too that A. Non Mouse writes about motherhood and conference travel now, when I am…
sciencewoman | August 11, 2009I'm back to working on my class on Experimental Design and Data Analysis. One of my goals for the course is to have students work in groups to write an NSF-style proposal. So I sat down this morning to think about the steps it takes to write a research proposal. When I turned to google, I found a lot of tips on the writing of proposals, but not a lot of tips about how to actually generate the content that goes into the proposals. Since my course focus is how-to-do-science, I'm more interested in the content than the style. (Yes, I'm sure style can make or break a borderline proposal, but if…
sciencewoman | August 11, 2009While I'm working on my course design stuff, please help some of my lovely bloggy friends conduct some research on how women geoscientists use blogs.
Over the past several years, the geoscience blogosphere has blossomed so much that this fall, the Geological Society of America (GSA) will be convening a Pardee Keynote Symposium called "Google Earth to Geoblogs: Digital Innovations in the Geosciences." Kim Hannula started wondering how blogs serve women geoscientists. Kim recruited the rest of us and we decided to approach this problem as scientists - by collecting data and analyzing the…
sciencewoman | August 5, 2009I'm heading off line today and won't have any internet access for a few days. After that I should have access again, but life has conspired to hand me the "Weeks of DOOOOM" leading up to September 1st-ish. You know, the usual start of classes (with a new prep), two grant proposals (with a third a few weeks later), my reappointment dossier and statement due, starting Minnow in a new preschool, revaccinating her because apparently all the shots she received prior to 6 months old are "potentially subpotent", etc., etc., etc. So things are going to get pretty quiet here for a while.
Hopefully…
sciencewoman | August 4, 2009A wonderful and alert reader writes:
i know you have lots of astronomer readers, so you probably already know about this, but just in case not: http://wia2009.gsfc.nasa.gov/
this is a conference whose title is "women in astronomy 2009: meeting the challenges of an increasingly diverse workforce."
i expect that there will be a lot of emphasis on astronomy, but also a lot of general discussion about life as a woman in science in general.
The conference is in College Park, MD in October and it sounds fantastic! If any of my legions of astronomer readers attend the conference, will you please…
sciencewoman | August 2, 2009The ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change received an award from the National Science Foundation ADVANCE program to hold professional development workshops for Ph.D.-level women in industry, research labs, consulting, or national labs who are interested in transitioning to academic careers in STEM. The first workshop will be held October 18-20, 2009 in Seattle. A recent press release about the workshops is at: http://uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?id=49062
The workshop speakers will primarily be successful women faculty members who began their post-Ph.D. careers in industry, research labs…
sciencewoman | July 31, 2009Abel, host of the next edition of Scientiae, has asked us how we balance our summer "musts" and "needs" (work and play). I think I've come up with a personally satisfactory answer to that question: lazy summer mornings.
During the academic year, mornings are a blur of getting everyone breakfast, dressed, and out the door. Sometimes Minnow would rather stay at home and play, but those 9 am classes and meetings won't wait for a toddler.
In the summer that time pressure is off. Rather than leaping out of bed with alarm clock, we let the dogs whining and our body's inclinations do the trick. We…
sciencewoman | July 31, 2009I need some new teaching shoes for fall semester. My trustworthy, if utilitarian, Keens always look incongruous with the feminine tailoring I prefer for my teaching/meeting outfits. Plus, my black Keens are a bit too big for my feet, since they were purchased late in pregnancy. So I've been looking for some new shoes - somewhat feminine, somewhat fun, but still they must be comfortable. I need to be able to walk around campus in them, even if I switch to Keens or Chacos when I go to pick up Minnow.
Like all good shoe-lovers would, I started with Isis's weekly shoe selections. But many of the…