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Sumiko Watanabe, Report on the “scientific progress and woman scientists” course, 基幹教育紀要 (Vol. 1), 2015.04, In the first term of 2014, I taught a course entitled “Scientific Progress and Woman Scientists” as one of General Subjects
at Faculty of Arts and Science (FAC), Kyushu University. Thirty-eight students attended: 25 freshmen, 11 sophomores, a
junior and a senior, belonging to nine different undergraduate schools. The purposes of taking this course were to know
and understand woman scientists through their experiences and to obtain some of the wisdom they had gained. The course
was designed in accord with the study perspective of FAC. In each of the course’s 15 lessons, I introduced a woman
scientist and her work, her co-workers and her affiliations, using slides and other materials. I introduced 11 woman
scientists, 20 universities and nine institutions of eight countries during the course. As an evaluation of the course, I had
the students complete two questionnaire surveys and write a report about woman scientists. In the questionnaire responses
and reports, I found some interesting issues. First, the students’ degree of recognition of women scientists was lower than
that of male scientists. Second, the woman scientist that the students selected as the most interesting scientist was Rosalind
Franklin. Third, it was notable that many students felt that spiritual strength was most important for success as a scientist.
Some students stated that they selected this course while thinking of their future as a scientist. I thus suggest that this
course should be further developed to provide not only knowledge but also encouragement to young scientists.. |
