Sciencewomen

What I'm working on

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:59:37 -0500

I'm not going to apologize about lack of posting over the last month or so, and I'm not going to make any promises for the future. That said, here's what I'm up to for InaDWriMo this month.

Here's what I wrote at ring-leader Dr. Brazen-Hussy's kickoff post:

Finish revisions on the paper-that-won't-die (goal: November 6)

Internal release time application (due November 15)

NSF proposal (due ~December 1)

After one week, I haven't finished the revisions, but I'm 90% done. No question as to me getting it done this week. I've got 3 pages of first draft of the 5 page release time application. This also will be finished this week, because it has to be finished. And...I've given up on the NSF proposal.

A combination of things (less free-time this month than anticipated, re-reading one of last year's InaDWriMo posts, assessing what I could ask of collaborators) made me realize that the NSF proposal was simply an unreasonable goal for the month. At best, I'd throw together a piece of shit application, give my new collaborators inadequate time to improve it, and get terrible reviews in my first PI NSF application. So, while a 6-month delay in getting this exciting new research plan submitted is a bitter pill to swallow, there's no question that it is a good decision.

Instead, I'd like to take my reasonably available science time this month to actually make sure I am setting my new grad students down reasonable courses for their theses. Any science time left over from that, I'll devote to finishing analyses from my 2008 AGU poster (subject of a InaDWriMo goal last year). This should give me everything I need to start really writing that manuscript next time I have a chance (say, next June).

So, at the end of week one, the score stands like this:

Finish revisions on the paper-that-won't-die (goal: November 6 13)

Internal release time application (due November 15)

~~NSF proposal (due ~December 1)~~

Read around proposed grad student topics enough to ensure we're not reinventing the wheel/pursuing proven dead ends (amorphous, I know)

Finish GIS work left-over from 2008 AGU poster.

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What would you do?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:26:51 -0500

A few days ago I arrived at my office in the morning and was greeted with an unpleasant surprise...someone had scratched a cross into the bulletin board just outside my office door.

(Apologies for the terrible cell-phone picture.)

While I'm able to cover the image with a strategically placed advising schedule, I'm haunted by a terribly icky feeling in the pit of my stomach. Was someone trying to send me a message? Why a cross? Why my board and not the boards of my male colleagues along the corridor?

I'm not offended by images of crosses in general, but it is not something that I want outside my office door. I don't think it's appropriate for a faculty member at a state-sponsored institution to appear to endorse a particular region on state property. I am even more troubled because we've already had anti-semitic and anti-African-American incidents on campus.

But I am afraid that if I raise the issue with my chair or others in the administration, that this will be dismissed as trivial. Maybe it should be? But would the reaction be different if a student had vandalized "Fuck you" or some other swear word? Should I ask for a new bulletin board or just cover up the cross for the next 30 years?

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SciWo's Storytime: Sally and the Purple Socks

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:02:28 -0500

Taking a break from the science-y books and from the donor requests, this week Minnow and I want to share one of our new favorite books. This is the first book that we've checked out of the library that Minnow is still talking about more than a month after we returned it. In fact, she and I love this book so much that our Amazon wish list is delivering a Christmas present early and our very own copy is on its way to us right now.

Without further ado, we present Sally and the Purple Socks by Lisze Bechtold:

If you watched through to the end of the video, you saw that at the end of the book, I revealed two pairs of purple socks just the right size for Minnow and I. Here we are the next morning:

Now, everyday that Minnow wears purple socks (and she has several pairs), she talks about her magic socks. Yesterday, Minnow helped me pick out my outfit. So if you saw someone around campus wearing nice black pants and shoes with a hint of an eggplant purple sock underneath, you might have seen me.

If you liked Sally and the Purple Socks, Minnow thinks you might like these books:

The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman - a culturally appropriate retelling of Little Black Sambo, which is truly a sweet story of a little boy outwitting some tigers who want his fine clothes.

Do you have a Hat? by Eileen Spinelli - fancy hats, historical figures, simple rhymes and colorful illustrations make this a fun book for both preschoolers and their parents

Edna's Tale by Lisze Bechtold - We haven't read this, but how can it fail to be at least moderately good when written by the same author.

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Blogger guilt

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:26:49 -0500

Folks, I don't know what to tell you. It's like I don't even remember how to blog anymore. I think I've posted 2 real posts in 2 months. I have ideas stacked up in my head for posts - a post from FIE 2009, a post from SWE including the cool "Father Knows Best" episode where Betty decides to be an engineer, a post about talking to my students about sustainability, my favourite holiday Halloween, how I quit my therapist (because I did - and your comments really helped me do so) and so on - but I have absolutely no energy to write them. No motivation. No interest. Just.... overwhelmingness about the work I have to do, and overwhelming guilt about how I'm not blogging.

So here, I'm acknowledging to you that I'm out here, regretting not blogging, but having no interest really in blogging for the moment. Just trying to get through my days in RL. And kind of warning you that I probably won't be blogging for quite a bit still. And a little bit hoping that admission that will help me feel not guilty any maybe I'll feel like blogging again then.

Here's hoping. Hope all is well with you out there, and that you're sending in good posts to Cherish for the November Scientiae...

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DonorsChoose wrap up

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:18:54 -0500

WOOT! In the month of October, 33 Sciencewomen readers, with a little help from HP, donated $3612 to deserving public school students around the country. We funded projects in California, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, Virginia and Utah.

As rewards for all your generosity, we've got several t-shirts from Yellow Ibis to give away, but before we do, here's a couple pieces of logistics.

HP provided $200,000(!) in matching funds for contributions to the social media challenge. Each person who gave to a DonorsChoose project in October will get an email sometime this month with a "Giving Card" entitling you to pick another project to fund with HP's money. The amount you get to give will be proportional to the amount you gave originally, and your project choice will be unrestricted. So you could certainly help finish off the last projects in our challenge, but you could also fund a ballet barre, puppet theater, or whatever your heart desires.

If you gave to our challenge and you haven't emailed me your receipt, please do so by the end of the day today, in order to be entered in the drawing for 1 of 3 Yellow Ibis t-shirts. My email is science dot woman (at) google's mail service.

If you provided the funding to completion for any project, let me know what you'd like Minnow and I to read for SciWo's Storytime.

Thanks for your spirit of giving!

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SciWo's Storytime: Pumpkins

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:00:18 -0500

This week Minnow and I are pleased to honor the first request from a DonorsChoose Challenge giver. (There's still time, donate enough to complete a project, email me the receipt and you too can request a story.) I'll admit to being pretty excited when this request came it, because it was perfectly seasonal...and we already had the book in our queue. Today's featured book is Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden, by George Levenson and exquisitely photographed by Shmuel Thaler.

But before we can get to the book, let's tell you about our trip to the pumpkin farm, where we learned some factoids about pumpkins, played in a corn pit, used a tomato slingshot (actually, Minnow ate her ammo), saw a week-old goat and her mama, got Minnow's face painted, went on a hayride, and picked our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. Our pumpkin picking rule was that Minnow and I each had to be able to carry our own pumpkin. The only disappointment to the day was that a blog-turned-real life friend wasn't able to join us.

After our pumpkins were safely ensconced at home, Minnow and I settled in to read Pumpkin Circle...

Here are a few (non-sciencey) books that have been seasonally and scarily delighting us this month:
The Three Bears Halloween by Kathy Duvall
Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree by Stan and Jan Berenstain

A few nights ago, Minnow's pumpkin got expertly carved by her Daddy, after Minnow scooped the seeds, and while I toasted them and kept the pumpkin-carving messes contained. Minnow requested a triangle nose, octagon eyes, and a happy smile.

Happy Halloween everyone!

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Math literacy is so important, but don't take my word for it.

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:43:43 -0500

There's a few days left in our October DonorsChoose challenge, and even after that there are many more great projects out there waiting for our help.

A few weeks ago, wonderful educator-science-historian-cultural-studies-expert-mother-blogger Leslie Madden-Brooks responded to a plea to help fund some projects, and I was deeply moved by what she wrote to the classroom, so I wanted to share it with you...

I gave to this project because I had such a tough time learning math, and I wish I had been able to develop this kind of mathematical and critical thinking through reading interesting authors. I enjoy science tremendously, but I had to stop taking these classes early in college because I couldn't do the math required in them. I don't want any students to have that same lifelong handicap.

Wow. I have so much respect for Leslie for admitting that and for trying to help some current elementary kids avoid the same dilemma. If Leslie's comment struck a nerve with you, consider helping one of these projects: Math Literature Books Needed for 3-5th graders in Michigan (needs just $99); or Math Read Alouds for South Carolina 3-5th graders with learning disabilities (needs just $74).

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Donors Choose: Reach $1750+ or 10+ more donors and Alice will donate 10% on top!

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:53:28 -0500

Folks, we are heading into the home stretch for Donors Choose, and you've helped 1084 kids get access to books they wouldn't have had without your help. That's great. But we can do better.

So.... 24 Sciencewomen blog readers have already donated $1517 to needy projects, and if you can help us make it a little farther, I will donate 10% of our final tally on top.

The criteria:
1) That we make it to $1750 before the challenge closes on Oct 31; OR (that's right, OR!)
2) That 10 more people make donations, no matter how small.

So either a generous person can give ~$230 on their own, or a whole bunch of people give $5 or whatever you can afford. Even better if 10 people give $25, because then we'd meet both criteria and even more!

Remember our other cool prizes too. Thanks for your consideration.

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SciWo's Storytime: Bugs

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:04:24 -0500

This week, Minnow and I present "Where do Insects Live?" in the Science Emergent Readers Series, from which we've previously featured a book on oceans.

(Yes, I am using bugs in the colloquial sense and not just to refer to some Hemiptera.There's plenty of time for Minnow to learn those details later. Who knows, she may go on to a career in entomology.)

It's autumn in Mystery State and bugs are getting harder to find, but Minnow and I did see various bugs under a flower pot, ants on our sidewalk, and a spider on her swing set. On a walk with SciGram, Minnow also found a moth warming up on a rock and spotted a praying mantis warming on the sunny side of a neighbor's house.

After dark, Minnow winds down by working on her insect puzzle. When she first started playing with the puzzle, just after she turned two, she was content to arrange the nine squares any which way. In the last month or two though, she's realized that she can put the squares together to form the bugs. She has also started naming the insects in the picture, but there are a couple of them that we haven't yet identified. Anyone care to help us out?

For more on bugs, Minnow thinks you will like some of her other favorite books about bugs.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

The Bug Book and Bug Bottle by Hugh Danks

Or you could help 1st grade students learn about the environment (click for cute kid/bug picture) in our DonorsChoose challenge.

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DonorsChoose reminder: Incentives to give more by Sunday

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:09:54 -0500

Don't worry, SciWo's storytime is coming later today. But first a word about our on-going DonorsChoose challenge. Along with 22 others, DonorsChoose has already given $50 to our challenge, and now they want to give more...based on how much we raise by Sunday. Here's the scoop:

Next week, we will distribute $200,000, the rest of HP's contribution, to all Social Media Challenge Giving Pages. But this time, your share will be calculated on a pro-rata basis based on the amount you've raised by Sunday. What does that mean? Now is the time to motivate your readers, followers, friends, fam and fans to donate to your page, so you can claim a larger share of the funds!
And there's yet another bonus: after the Challenge is over, everyone who donated to your Giving Page will get a DonorsChoose.org Giving Card, courtesy of HP. Those donors will get to decide which projects are supported with HP's $200,000 in funds. [Italics mine]

This incentive is on top of the already plentiful list of prizes available to donors to our challenge. To recap:

A chance at 3 t-shirts from our friends at Yellow Ibis. (Send a receipt for any amount to science dot woman at gmail)

Finish off a project and you can request a special SciWo's Storytime with the age-appropriate book of your choice. (Send a receipt for any amount to science dot woman at gmail)

A chance at a Scienceblogs swag bag with Seed moleskin notebooks and tote bags, ScienceBlogs mugs and USB drives, and books from Yale University Press and Oxford University Press. (Send a receipt to scienceblogs@gmail.com)

Please give generously by Sunday and through all of next week. There are many great projects left to be funded.

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SciWo's Storytime: Lakes and Ponds

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:54:50 -0500

This week on SciWo's Storytime, we're reading about Lakes and Ponds in a book by Cassie Mayer, from the same series as an earlier episode about oceans. While the text of this series of books is simple, I'm finding that they are a great way to engage Minnow in a conversation about the topic. Listen to how excited she gets about lakes and boats...

I wanted to take Minnow to a local lake for "No Child Left Inside Day" earlier this Earth Science Week, but instead we played with the neighborhood kids and dug in the dirt, which was pretty fun too. In any case, Minnow and I have a long tradition of playing in and around water, so here's a slideshow of a couple of the lakes and ponds we have explored together.

Want to read more about lakes with the kids in your life? Check out these wonderful books that Minnow and I are enjoying these days:
A Drop Around the World by Barbara McKinney and illustrated by Michael Maydak. Follow the water cycle from the perspective of a single water molecule as its moves around the globe.
Letting Swift River Go by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. The poignant recollections of a girl who watched her riverside village drown to form Quabbin Reservoir in western Massachusetts.

Want to bring books about the environment to other students? Then check out a couple of our featured DonorsChoose projects:

Give copies of the inspiring novel Seedfolks to North Carolina high school students in a greenhouse biology class.

Give a microscope, slides, and environmental library to a new first grade teacher in Nevada.

Give an environmental library, terrarium, and recycling activity kit to mulitcultural kindergarten students in Michigan

Give Jack and the Beanstalk and The Giving Tree to first grade students in Southern California to combine science and literature in a unit about plants.

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Why junior faculty are so horrible to their grad/post-doc staff

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:41:21 -0500

I had a realization over the weekend, as I contemplated the enormity of the amount of work I had to do, and the scant allowance of time in which to do it. I have suddenly realized why (at least junior) faculty can be so horrible to their graduate students and post-doctoral staff. It comes down to a complete gridlock of their time.

I have so many people who need to meet with me (I know! Lowly me!) that my days are filled with meetings, or getting to meetings, or class. This means there is really not enough time to get any work done, such as prep for such meetings or such class time. So I end up working in the evenings prepping for meetings and class, which means all the other requests that come in amongst the 100+ email messages I get every day get ignored.

The only way I can get myself out of this mess is by dumping stuff on grad assistants or post-docs, and I don't even have time to prep them properly, or give them the tools they need to be able to handle the work. So the result is that they are forced "sink or swim" and it looks like I don't care enough to help them.

I know; guilt again. I'm really good at that.

Then there's the problem where I think I have given some task to my research staff, and they need me to sign off on something, whereas I would rather they take the ball and run with it, only talking to me when they really need help. Instead, I have this sense they need reassuring, which again makes me feel like they need more of me than I have time to give.

At the end of the day, I feel torn between the need to educate my research staff in various research practices, in helping them learn to be self-sufficient, in developing the skills to work in groups together, and the need to have them just get the work done.

It's not a pretty place. I have significantly more sympathy for junior faculty advisors of grad students than I used to.

But those senior people... they should really know better, right?

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Guilt versus intentionality

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:49:36 -0500

Hi, I'm Alice. It's been 11 days since I last blogged.

Things have been busy over the last couple of weeks - even more than usual. I started listing out the stuff I've been doing, but rather than making me feel like I had gotten a lot done, it was just making me tired, so I deleted it.

Instead, I'm going to share a thought with you that I had yesterday. Well, maybe more than one.

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Two cool videos about women atmospheric scientists helping diversify and strengthen their field

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:29:43 -0500

It's Earth Science Week, and this year's theme is Understanding Climate. So it's the perfect time to share some cool videos of women earth scientists and how they are working to improve the diversity and representation of women in atmospheric science. Hat tip to Erika Marin-Spiotta for sharing these videos.

The first three-minute video is about the GRASP program, which gives undergraduate students a chance to do research at Storm Peak Lab in Colorado.

The second ten-minute video is on the ASCENT workshops, that aimed to develop vertical mentoring and lateral networking among women atmospheric scientists.

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SciWo's Storytime: Predator-Prey Relationships (Little Cottontail)

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:32:43 -0500

A few nights ago, Minnow was in the mood to make videos of some of her favorite books - almost any books, except ones with an overt scientific bent. Right now, she wants books with a storyline, and I'm afraid that some of the sciencey books I'd lined up for this month are not story-driven enough for her tastes.

But among the books she picked out, was a Little Golden Book called "Little Cottontail" by Carl Membling and illustrated by Lilian Obligado. As we read the book, it occurred to me that while on the surface this was a heart-warming book about a little rabbit's coming of age, if we dug a little deeper...there was science.

The alert reader notices that the little cottontail is learning about foraging for food in different seasons and is dramatically taught about how to avoid becoming food for a predator. The next morning, I wanted to follow up on the book and I initiated the following conversation with Minnow:

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