WMS 130:  Achievements of Women in Math, Science, & Engineering

First Year Living Learning Community Seminar 

for WIMSE Program

Instructors:  Meg Hancock, Graduate Assistant, Women's Center, MacMillan Hall, 9-8588  Email:  hannocmg@muohio.edu

  Jan Yarrison-Rice, Associate Professor, Physics Department, 15 Culler Hall, 9-1862   Email: yarrisjm@muohio.edu

Syllabus

Based on two texts:

 Nobel Prize Women in Science by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
Extraordinary Women Scientists by Darlene R. Stille

Introduction:

    This is a credit/no-credit course which provides 1 credit hour toward graduation.  WMS 130 is a sprint course which runs on Tuesday and Thursday from 3-3:50 and 4-4:50 PM from Tuesday, August 24 through Thursday, October 14th.

Course Plan:

    A series of guest speakers will be presenting information on notable women in mathematics, science, and engineering.  The guest speakers are women faculty from Miami whose research is related to the work of the women who are being highlighted.  You will hear about the well-known scientist’s lives and about their research; then the MU women will describe some of their own work.  You will be asked to prepare (in a group) a presentation on a notable woman in SME whom you find interesting.  Each group will present a 10 minute presentation and then 10 minutes of discussion will follow.

Grades:

    Your grade in WMS 130 will be based upon 4 things: the introductory paper in which you introduce yourself to the instructor, your attendance and participation, your presentation on a notable woman, and a final paper in which you compare and contrast the achievements of women in the past to present day women in SME (yourself included) and how that effects your studies.  Papers and presentations will be graded as Credit or No-credit, and so must be at least a C level of work.  Attendance will be taken in each class.  A brief 1 minute reflection question may be requested as part of the participation grade.

Presentations:

Either choose a well-reknowned woman in math, science, medicine, engineering, or technology driven field and share her life and work
OR
Research and present career options that are centered around a particular major or sub-field

Final Paper:

Focused on your career choices and available options.  It will also include reflections from the presentations and activities from the course.

WMS 130:  Plan of Action  [Format:  Miami U. Scientist, Dept., Reknowned Scientist, Research Area]

T, Aug. 24    Introduction
R, Aug. 26    Discussion of student backgrounds
T, Aug. 31    Joyce Fernandez, Zoo, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard          Developmental Biologist, Nobel Prize 1995
R, Sept. 2    Tour of Women’s Center
T, Sept. 7    Mon/Tues Exchange – No Class
R, Sept. 9    Linda Marchant, Behavioral Anthropology
    Jane Goodall, Primatologist
T, Sept. 14    Student Conservation Assoc, SCA Presentation
    Internships in Conservation and Career Info
R, Sept. 16    2 Student Group Presentations
T, Sept. 21    2 Student Group Presentations
R, Sept. 23    2 Student Group Presentations
T, Sept. 28    2 Student Group Presentations
R, Sept. 30    Lori Isaacson, Zoo, Rita Levi-Montalcini
        Neuroembriologist, Nobel Prize 1986
T, Oct. 5
R, Oct. 7
T, Oct. 12
R. Oct. 14    Last Class, Wrap-up

Still waiting for dates for:

Jade Morton, Elec. Eng,  Judith Resnick or Mae C. Jameson (astronauts & engineering)
Linda Watson, Bot., Barbara McClintock, Plant Genetics, Nobel Prize 1983
Ivonne Ortiz, Math/Stats, Martha Farnesworth Riche or Janet Norwood (Census Bureau)
Jan Y-R, Phys, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Astrophysicist, Pulsars

 

Nearly Contemporary Women Scientists:

Barbara McClintock        Geneticist        1902-1992    Maize genetics
                                            Nobel in Physiology/Medicine 1983

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin    Physical Chemist    1910-1994    Xray Crystallography of penicillin, insulin, and                                                       B12 and others
                                                 Nobel in Chemistry 1964 (most recent in Chemistry)

Gertrude Elion            Biochemist        1918-1999    Drug discoveries made organ transplants possible also work                                     the basis of AZT for AIDs
                                     Nobel in Physiology/Medicine 1988

Maria Goeppert Mayer    Physicist        1906-1972    Nuclear Shell Model
                                            Nobel in Physics 1963 ( most recent Nobel in Phys to a woman)

Rosalind Elsie Franklin    Physical Chemist    1920-1958    Xray structure of DNA and other viruses
                                            Data taken by Watson and Crick

Florence Bascom        Geologist        1862-1945

Contemporary Women Scientists:

Rosalyn Sussman Yallow    Medical Physics    1921 – Pres    Radioimmunoassay procedure for endocrinology
                                                Nobel in Physiology/Medicine 1977 (1st American born woman)

Rita Levi-Montalcini        Neuroembryologist    1909- Pres    Nerve growth factors for cells
                                                Nobel in Physiology/Medicine 1986

Jocelyn Bell Burnell        Astronomer/Physicist        1943- Pres    Pulsar Discoveries

Christiane Nusslein-Volhard    Developmental Biologist    1942- Pres    Genetic origin of human health problems                                                     like birth defects and cancer
                                                    Nobel in Physiology/Medicine 1995

Jane Goodall            Ethologist        1934- Pres    Studied chimpanzee lifestyles and societies

Diane Fossey            Zoologist        1932-1985    Primate studies

Jewell Plummer Cobb        Cell Biologist/Educator     1924-Pres   

Judith A. Resnick        Astronaut/Electrical Engineer    1949-1986    Astronaut on Challenger when it exploded

Mae C. Jemison        Astronaut/Physician/Biomedical Engineer    1956-Pres.