ELITEANDLOVINGIT Posted November 10, 2012 Share Posted November 10, 2012 Does anyone else get a bit cheesed that most of the boxed curriculum sets spend little time focusing on women in science and women that changed the world? Drives me nuts...just sounding off (maybe someone reading will insert some women in their boxes). Any that you know of...particularly in upper level science? I think we are going to do a unit on this next... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5wolfcubs Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Cheesed? :lol: No. My guess is that most of the science/scientists covered at lower levels are men...because it is basic stuff that was discovered when most scientist were men. The library usually has books in every section on women who were particularly influential. Maybe you can sell your unit on CurrClick. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 I would seek out biographies of women scientists. My first suggestion is Marie Curie, as she won the Nobel Prize, and it's hard to say that's a lightweight accomplishment! Here's a nice website you might find useful http://www.iwaswondering.org/ and also http://women.nasa.gov/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckens Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 It's not just that "only men were scientists" in the past. Women were either blocked from the lab, or their accomplishments/abilities in science were unacknowledged. Including: Marie Curie was turned down for membership in the French Academy of Sciences. She earned not one, but TWO Nobel Prizes in not one, but TWO different fields. She was brilliant, brilliant, brilliant....but not good enough for them. Lavoisier is well known for his stoichiometry experiments. His name is inscribed on the outside of our university library with other great thinkers. Who knows that his wife was his lab assistant, and a very capable scientist who worked side by side with him? Rosalind Franklin was badmouthed by Watson, Crick, and Wilkins. Some attacks were that she didn't make her hair/clothes/face pretty enough. Wilkins thought Franklin should act less like a colleague and more like the underling she was;.....and then we find the historical document of the letter from the university president inviting Frankin to run the DNA program. Yeah, I get cheesed off at these sorts of things happening again and again and again. It makes me hold my girls and tell them that I hope in their world, they will be appreciated for the contributions they can make. We're planning to supplement when we get to higher levels of science. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 (edited) Yeah, I guess I'm not sure what's wanted. I don't use a box curriculum, so there's that... We've primarily studied specific scientists within the context of history. With science, we've mentioned a few names, but mostly we've just studied the science, not the discoverers and inventors. We're only up to early modern with history, so there's no expectation that there would be tons of women scientists. We do cover social history a good bit, so the fact that these avenues were closed to women usually is something we've covered in a broader sense. ETA: I'm aware of the Marie Curies of the world, but I'll add that if anyone knows of any good biographies of lesser known women in science, I'd love to see those. We've recently read a couple of good children's biographies of recent scientists that weren't famous (except within their fields, perhaps), which I thought was really neat - reading about Newton and Einstein and Marie Curie often doesn't make you feel much like becoming a scientist is within your reach. This was much smaller and more mundane and I'd love to find more books like that, including with women. Edited November 11, 2012 by farrarwilliams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 There's some basic summaries of a few in this wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science You could find a few that looked interesting (they're listed by timeframe) and look up biographies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 ETA: I'm aware of the Marie Curies of the world, but I'll add that if anyone knows of any good biographies of lesser known women in science, I'd love to see those. We've recently read a couple of good children's biographies of recent scientists that weren't famous (except within their fields, perhaps), which I thought was really neat - reading about Newton and Einstein and Marie Curie often doesn't make you feel much like becoming a scientist is within your reach. This was much smaller and more mundane and I'd love to find more books like that, including with women. I have one called Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists, by Jeannine Atkins. It profiles Maria Sibylla Merian, Anna Botsford Comstock), Frances Hamerstrom, Rachel Carson, Miriam Rothschild, and Jane Goodall. The whole book is 64 p long with lots of illustrations. This is a book for younger kids, published by Dawn Publications. http://www.dawnpub.com/our-store/biographies/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lailasmum Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 It annoys me too and in other areas, when I was studying photographers it was very male dominated and it took digging deeper to find the women. The Royal Institute did a day where they wrote wikipedia entries for many female scientists that had up until that point had no public information easily available about them. There is a list here. There is a link here to some of the female British Scientists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freerange Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 This is something that urks my DD no end. She got Spectacular Women in Space for Christmas last year, and I've ordered Super Women in Science for this year. I also try to counter by mentioning more recent women scientists as we're reading about areas in which they work, e.g. Carolyn Shoemaker when discussing astronomy, Susan Greenfield for the brain, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 There are a number of women included in Marvels of Science: Fascinating 5-Minute Reads by Kendall Haven. Sophie Germaine Shirley Jackson Berta & Karl Benz Marie Curie Dorothy Hodgkin Bette Nesmith Florence Sabin Eugenie Clark Barbara McClintock Jewell Cobb Maria Mitchell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Celebrating Women in Mathematics and Science by Miriam P. Cooney looks promising, but I've never seen it in real life. The description seems to be for an utterly different book. I can't find the ones I used to read when I was younger. Emmy Noether is a great example of a woman mathematician, by the way. Not a slouch or second rate thinker. Ada Byron Lovelace is a sort of interesting character, too. She was a computer science visionary; she is the daughter of Lord Byron the poet. Grace Hopper (Navy admiral) developed the first computer programming language compiler and coined the term "bug" as used for computer glitches. Here is an interesting interview with Jean Bartik, who programmed the ENIAC: http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_429_A_Technical_Camelot.mp3/view I think reading science books that happen to be written by women is an important thing, too, regardless of whether they are actually about women. By the way, Theoni Pappas (Penrose the Mathematical Cat) is a woman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 I have one called Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists, by Jeannine Atkins. It profiles Maria Sibylla Merian, Anna Botsford Comstock), Frances Hamerstrom, Rachel Carson, Miriam Rothschild, and Jane Goodall. The whole book is 64 p long with lots of illustrations. This is a book for younger kids, published by Dawn Publications.http://www.dawnpub.com/our-store/biographies/ That one looks good. Thanks. If you look on Amazon, there are a couple of children's biographies of Ada Lovelace. She's really pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heathermomster Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Maybe look into books about Hypatia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Maybe look into books about Hypatia. I saw a new one on Amazon. I don't know different books deal with the details, but she was viciously murdered, so keep that in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ELITEANDLOVINGIT Posted November 11, 2012 Author Share Posted November 11, 2012 Thanks! These all look great... It appears I am not the only "girl power" educator on the board. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Bay Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 No curricula, but there are books about women & what they've achieved, as you can see. One correction--it's Sophie Germain, not germaine. Germaine is a surname and an English word, but if you do a google there's no e on her name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 In another few years, I am planning on having dd spend a year focusing science and history around women who made a difference. Having said that, here are some books on women in science: Girls Think of Everything Women Astronomers: Reaching for the Stars Women in Science Rule! She's Such a Geek! Women Write About Science, Technology, & Other Nerdy Stuff The Science Book for Girls & Other Intelligent Beings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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