Category: What’s New

How do we close the wage gap in the U.S.?

The gender pay gap is now the narrowest it’s ever been, and yet it’s still 2.5 times the size of those of other industrialized countries. So what’s to be done? By all accounts and figures, women in the work force have made enormous economic progress in the last 50 years. In the 1980s, women only…Read more

7 misused science words

“Just a Theory”: 7 Misused Science Words By Tia Ghose, LiveScience on April 2, 2013 From “significant” to “natural,” here are seven scientific terms that can prove troublesome for the public and across research disciplines Hypothesis. Theory. Law. These scientific words get bandied about regularly, yet the general public usually gets their meaning wrong. Now,…Read more

Communicating the science of climate change

Feature Article: Communicating the science of climate change by Richard C. J. Somerville and Susan Joy Hassol It is urgent that climate scientists improve the ways they convey their findings to a poorly informed and often indifferent public.   As scientists we must consider the power of language in our communication as common terms for…Read more

NPR story: Why Math Rocks

Why Math Rocks Article by Marcelo Gleiser — a theoretical physicist and cosmologist and professor of natural philosophy, physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College. He is the co-founder of 13.7, a prolific author of papers and essays, and active promoter of science to the general public. Everyone who has kids, or who remembers his/her childhood,…Read more

Gender Bias in Academia

From the hastac blog post: “The often unconscious and unintentional biases against women, including in academe, have been well documented in the autobiographical writings of authors such as Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Patricia Williams, and bell hooks. But is the experience they document merely “subjective”?  Several recent social science research studies, using strictly controlled methodologies,…Read more

Science Scene: Internalized gender roles affect STEM performance, attraction

Science Scene: Internalized gender roles affect STEM performance, attraction [excerpt] When Cady Heron failed calculus in order to impress her crush, Aaron Samuels, in the film “Mean Girls,” she showed how detrimental internalized gender roles can be. Men often dislike when women outsmart them in traditionally male-dominated tasks, such as math or other analytical activities,…Read more

Front Range Workshop Success!

Front Range PROGRESS Workshop Success! October 10-11, 2015 Fifty three first and second year undergraduate women from five different schools in Colorado and Wyoming spent the weekend in Estes Park learning about their own strengths, career paths in earth and environmental sciences, meeting mentors, and forming a peer network that will hopefully support them through…Read more