From: Sarah Boomer
I come from an entirely non-science family of pretty much teachers
and military. I became interested in science in 7th grade because of an
excellent and fascinating presentation on DNA and cell biology by a woman
teacher (although I can't say I was moved in particular by her gender - at
least knowingly - at the time). My highschool courses were not stellar
(although I excelled at the top of all my classes) - i.e. I wasn't a part
of any program that did team experiments or new age teaching - I had two
male teachers - one of whom was absolutely EXCELLENT and definitely taught
our honors/advanced placement course at the college level (evolution and
all - I was very taken with evolution).
I floundered a lot in college my first few years, mostly because I
didn't do well in first year chemistry. I was highly intimidated by big
lab classes my first years - I prefered to work independently.
I eventually did official thesis work under the tutelage of a
woman professor/PhD. I went to grad. school because I wanted to be a
small college professor. I'll be getting my degree this summer and have
actually been considering teaching highschool a lot lately - getting a
certificate and all instead of the post-doc route.
I don't know what I think about "motivation." I know that I want to be a
motivational professor. That's simply how I am - I want to get to know
the students, be open with them, show them that scientists aren't the
stereotypical lab-bound, socially-withdrawn individuals that somehow we've
earned the reputation for being.
I've had the great fortune of giving talks to or giving tours to junior
high and high school girls several times during my graduate work. I
simply can't imagine not being boisterous and lively and giving them the
opportunity to ask/answer questions and talk and load gels or do something
other than be lectured to while touring the lab - anything to get their
hands dirty. That's what is motivating to me - even though I
didn't have it (or need it) until college. And what they choose
ultimately really shouldn't matter - as long as they broaden their
understanding in any way.
Motivation may simply be the activation energy required to get someone
beyond boredom, to wake them up, to get through through a momentary
relapse, to push them from curious to converted. Who cares if it doesn't
last through the PhD stage! What I really want to know is how to
restructure science careers so they are more attractive and human-friendly
to girls because ultimately that is where a BIG drop out is happening.
Sarah Boomer
Newsgroups: bionet.women-in-bio
Subject: Re: Motivating girls to do science
sarai@u.washington.edu