Issues for Ethnic Minorities and Women in Science and Engineering

URL: http://courses.washington.edu/wost/Win02
 

• NOTE:  The email account wost@u.washington.edu should be used for all assignments, and for mail that should be received by either (or both) Prof. Olmstead and Prof. Giniorio.  The email accounts ginorio@u.washington.edu and olmstead@phys.washington.edu should be used for email specifically for Profs. Ginorio and Olmstead, respectively.

Instructors

Office:  Padelford B110-P       Phone:  206-685-2238       Email:  ginorio@u.washington.edu

Office Hours:  Wednesday 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. and by appointment

Office:  Physics-Astronomy B433 Phone: 206-685-3031  Email:  olmstead@phys.washington.edu

Office Hours:  Tuesday 1:45 - 3:15 p.m. and by appointment

Course Description and Goals

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

Course Requirements and Grading

• participating in class discussion (with evidence of having completed the readings) (10% of final grade)
• leading/facilitating a class presentation, and a report on this presentation (20% of final grade, partly by peer evaluation)
• preparing four short reports (32% of final grade)
• summary of one of the panels or visiting speakers (8% of final grade)
• final project and paper (30% of final grade)

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.  An abstract of the presentation and a list of the reading assignments must be turned in electronically to wost@u.washington.edu or to the Electronic Submission Site one week prior to the in-class presentation.  Four copies of any reading assignments not available electronically must be turned in for deposit in the library at least one week prior to the in-class presentation.

Timeliness and presentation of materials are important. Materials to be posted on the web should be submitted electronically (text, html, MSWord97/98, or pdf).  Short reports may be submitted either electronically or in hard copy.  Final projects must be submitted in hard copy.  All hard copy assignments must be submitted in duplicate.  All electronic submission should be to the Electronic Submission Site or wost@u.washington.edu.  For team presentations, agreement about grading must be reached at the time that the proposal for the presentation is submitted  Hard copy assignments should be turned in during class on the due-date.  Electronic submissions will be accepted until 5 p.m. on the due date.  Grades on late assignments will be reduced 10% per day.  You must contact the instructors to request late submission at the Electronic Submission Site.

Except for exceptional circumstances, no incompletes will be granted.
 

Readings

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. Readings that are not available on the world-wide-web will be found in reserve in the Odegaard Undergraduate Library and in the reserve section of the Physics Library.  Those readings available early in the quarter have been assembled as a CoursePack.  They may be purchased for $14.00 + tax at the Ave Copy Center, 4141 University Way Suite 103 (basement entrance below credit union).

Readings should be completed BEFORE the date of the presentation for which they are assigned.  A portion of your class participation grade will be assessed on how you integrate information from the readings into the class discussion.  Also, it will enable much better use of class time.
 

Written products

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

• Class Participation
• an evaluation of each student presentation

[due within a week of the presentation; submitted on web-based form through the class web page]
• Class Presentation
• one-page summary or abstract of the presentation, to be posted in the web page, submitted as a group.  The summary should include the main references used for the presentation.

[due one week before the presentation; electronic submission]
• list of readings the class should complete before the presentation, submitted as a group.

[due one week before the presentation; electronic submission]
• copy of viewgraphs or other materials used in presentation, submitted as a group

[due one week after the presentation; electronic or hard-copy submission]
• three page report on the class presentation / topic of the presentation, submitted individually.  Groups should divide the topic among themselves for the information to be summarized in the reports.

[due one week after the presentation; electronic or hard-copy submission]
• Short Reports (each maximum three pages in length)
• report on status (numerical statistics and individual)

[due Monday 28 January; either electronic or hard-copy submission]
• report on UW program

[due Friday 15 February; either electronic or hard-copy submission]
• personal reflection on climate issues

[due Monday 25 February; either electronic or hard-copy submission]
• report on policy issue in memo format

[first draft due Friday 8 March; Final draft due Monday 18 March; either electronic or hard-copy submission]
• Speaker Summary
• report on 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 speakerís talk; electronic submission]
• Final project
• proposal for project (maximum one page)

[due Monday 4 February]
• full project (18-25 pages)

[due Monday 18 March; ; hard-copy submission.
Students taking course for W-credit must submit first drafts by Friday 1 March]


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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 this class.

Course Schedule

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