Teaching and Learning Physics
week 10 assignments

Tues 10/28: Gender and Race in Physics (or lack thereof?) day 17

ALL: Schiebinger: Has Feminism Changed Science (2000). read Introduction (can skip the part marked from pp. 13-15)
Grads:, Chapter 9 on math and science ---

ALL: Read at least one, preferably both of the following two (but neither is long)

Claude Steele -on Stereotype Threat - paper (a popular piece)
Dancy - The Myth of Gender Neutrality.. (4pp)

no summary necessary; questions / points still due:

 

Thurs 10/30: Gender and Race in Physics (or lack thereof?) day 18

Look in your usual textbook at this week's chapter (Work / Kinetic Energy: Chap 11 of Knight)

i. Find evidence in this chapter of explicit or implicit references to gender or race.
ii. Find two problems that that specifically attend to gender or race. Identify in what ways (be sure to think about this in terms of the issues that Shiebinger, Steele, and Dancy raise). I strongly encourage you to dig deeper than a surface issue such as using a female character (though that's a start). [If this is an impossible task modify two problems and discuss how / why. If you are commited to the idea that gender / race do not play a role in the description, teaching, and practice of physics, feel free to spend this assignment describing why -- using evidence from the chapter, the readings, and example homework problems].