Monday, June 2, 2008

Who's Afraid of Marie Curie?

Lynley Erin Hall interviewed 94 women scientists ages 14 to 82. Her book Who's Afraid of Marie Curie? The Challenges Facing Women in Science and Technology summarizes these interviews and integrates recent research on gender issues in science.

Published by Seal Press, 2007.

Psychology of Gender

To date, most of my posts have been the factual relaying of information. However, I would like to mention that I am enrolled in a summer course entitled The Psychology of Gender. This course, taught by Jaime Mullet at FDU, will examine research materials regarding the psychological experiences of humans as gendered beings. We will be discussing the following questions:
  • In what ways are women and men similar and different?
  • What contributes to these differences?
  • When are these differences significant?

We started off our first class by making sure that we were all clear on the differences between the terms sex and gender. Of course, being a biologist I defined sex as the genotype and gender as the phenotype. Phenotype is the result of genetic makeup, environment and an interaction between one's genetic makeup and environment. And as we learned on the first evening, there are a lot of cultural and social influences that determine gender. We read a fascinating article The Islands where Boys grow up to be Girls which describes the fa'afafine of Samoa.

Science Education Resources

The Science Education Resource Center (SERC) is a wonderful source for pedagocical resources for teaching science.

Recent Publication of AAC&U

Liberal Education is the publication for the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The recent issue completely concentrates on Science Education.