UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

Women Studies 485 (5 credits)/Physics 428 (3 credits)

URL: (a href=http://weber.u.washington.edu/~olmstd/mwse>http://weber.u.washington.edu/~olmstd/mwse

e-mail: wost@u.washington.edu

Issues for ethnic minorities and women in science and engineering:

Spring 1999: Mondays & Fridays 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Public Lectures: Physics A-114

Class meetings: Physics B-109

The seminar will be co-lead by a social scientist (Ginorio) and a physical scientist (Olmstead). On weeks when invited speakers are in town the students will attend the public lecture as well as a private discussion with the lecturer. On remaining weeks instructors will guide discussions. This course requires active participation in all aspects of the class.

The goals for this class through all class activities are to:

• inform students of issues faced by women and ethnic minorities in science and engineering nationally and locally
• introduce students to expert women and ethnic minority practitioners of science as well as expert social scientists who study issues faced by women and ethnic minorities in science and engineering
• provide a national as well as local context for these issues so that students can critically evaluate the framing of the issues as well as the effectiveness of the solutions proposed so far
• prepare students to address these issues in the context of their own discipline and institution by developing review of possible solutions at the UW

This course can be taken as a 3 credit course or as a 5 credit course. This is a reading, writing, and discussion course. These are the major requirements:

1. participating in class discussion, (15% of final grade)
2. leading/facilitating a class presentation, (30% of final grade, partly by peer evaluation)
3. preparing three short reports (45% of final grade), and
4. summary of one of the panels or visiting speakers (10% of final grade).

For those students taking the course through Women Studies for 5 credits the above will be multiplied by .6 (.6 is equal to three credits out of five credits). The remaining 40% of the grade will be earned by doing a final project and corresponding paper.

In addition, all students are required to use e-mail and the course web site. Announcements of readings and other assignments will be made through these electronic means.

A minimum of two weeks before their in-class presentation, students must consult with Prof. Ginorio and/or Prof. Olmstead. Reading assignments for the class must be approved by the instructors before they are submitted to the class one week prior to the in-class presentation.

Timeliness and presentation of materials are important. Materials to be posted on the web can be submitted electronically. The rest of the assignments must be submitted in hard-copy, two copies of each assignment. If people work in teams, agreement about grading must be reached at the time that the proposal for either the presentation or the project is submitted. Except for exceptional circumstances, no incompletes will be granted.

*********

If you would like to request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services, 448 Schmitz Hall by calling 543-8924 (V/TDD).

If you have a letter from Disabled Student Services, indicating that you have a disability that requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to one of the instructors so we can discuss this and other accommodations that you might need for class.

There is no required textbook for this course. Readings for this class will be selected by the instructors, the invited speakers, and/or the students responsible for a particular presentation. The readings for the classes that the instructors lead can be found in reserve in the Odegaard Undergraduate Library and in the reserve section of the Physics Library.

[This list is distilled from the requirements discussed in pages to be distributed on Friday.]

At the end of the course, students will have the following written products:

1. class participation
• an evaluation of each presentation to be submitted through the web page for the class
  [due within a week of the presentation]
• submission of questions to invited speakers or panel members
  [due by 10 a.m. of the day the speaker or panel will be in class]
2. making a class presentation
• one-page summary or abstract of the presentation, to be posted in the web page, submitted by the group that makes the presentation
  [due the day of the presentation]
• list of references used in presentation, to be posted in the web page, submitted by the group that makes the presentation
  [due the day of the presentation]
• three page report on the class presentation / topic of the presentation, submitted individually [due one week after the presentation]
3. preparing three mini-reports (each maximum three pages in length)
• report on a "number" and its significance, to be posted in the web page
  [due on Friday 16 April]
• report on personal reflection on climate issues
  [due on Friday 14 May]
• report on policy issue in memo format
  due on Friday 28 May]
4. Summary of one of the panels or visiting speakers, to be posted in the web page, submitted as a group
   [due one week after the panel or speaker’s talk]
5. (For Women 485 students only) Final project
   [due on Monday 6 June]

Course Schedule

Back to Home Page