1. Pick an issue affecting women in science which you find compelling. Closely examine the situation and any possible cause-and-effect relationships. Using evidence from research studies, devise a program, a course of action, or a list of recommendations to improve the situation for women in science. Write a paper that gives a detailed explanation of these, with supporting evidence. If appropriate, you may also implement your recommendations. For example, if one of your recommendations is the dissemination of gender-fair teaching strategies in middle schools, you might develop a brochure or workshop for middle-school teachers. Or you might write a web page with information, a brochure aimed at junior high school girls and their parents, a letter to the Weekly or President Steuer, or hold a demonstration or lecture, or a press conference. I encourage you to include assessment plans in the extra component(s) of your project. This could be a before-and-after survey if your project is a series of workshops, or a long-term follow-up plan.
2. or pick an issue affecting women in science which you find compelling.  Become the local expert on this topic.  Develop an online annotated bibiography/resource list.  You should think carefully about how you want to organize the information.  Your annotations should give the user a clear understanding of the content of each resource as well as the author/maintainer.  You will also provide a brief written description of your methodology (how you chose your resources, how you chose to organize it, how you did your research) as well as a summary of any research in that field.

If your project does not have any components beyond a research paper, then your paper should be about 6-8 pages long. If your project does have a component beyond a research paper, then your paper might be closer to 3-4 pages long.

Here is a list of possible topics for your final project.  This list is intended to generate ideas; it is not intended to be all-inclusive. Projects should be specific enough that you can give a thorough examination of a particular topic.

• race and women scientists: additional obstacles
• women in a particular scientific field: patterns and problems
• the effect of stereotypes on scientists
• mentoring programs
• the effect of role models
• classroom experiences
• test biases
• cognitive differences
• single-sex programs/classes
• affirmative action
• self-esteem
• socialization
• critical mass
• the effect of expectations on performance
• extra family obligations
• discrimination
• sexual harassment
• learning/working styles
• female friendly science/ reforming curriculum and pedagogy
• differing career paths
• women and science at Gustavus
• design a webpage with relevant information for the (currently not very active) Women in Science group
• design a webpage for the MCS Club page providing information about women and computer science
• design a program to provide senior science major mentors for incoming students
• suggest changes in the way introductory science courses are taught
• design a web page that provides information about graduate school/job possibilities/opportunities for women in a particular field
• design and begin your own Poster Project at Gustavus
• design a course/syllabus on women and science, perhaps more focused or narrow than our course (women in physics, women and computer science, feminism and science ...):  what readings would you assign?  what questions would start the discussions?  what assignments would the students complete?

• research:  thoroughness, quality of sources
• documentation:  sources cited appropriately, complete bibliography
• organization:  organization makes sense and enhances presentation
• annotation:  resources and links are annotated, annotations enhance usefulness of links and references
• writing:  well written, tone appropriate for project
• presentation:  web pages present information in an effective manner, decoration does not hinder ability to read pages

Not very useful  (nothing but a list of urls)

More useful

Better (more descriptive blurbs)  Better (some structure and organization but limited desciption of sites)

Better Still (this annotated bibliography gives concise information about each entry and the organization makes sense.  I could envision a similar document for web resources)

Example of "Web Sites Review"  (no structure or organization, but does include descriptions of varying quality)