Teaching ideas – women in STEM

Author: Teachit
Published: 07/10/2014

Read the OpenLearn article 'Influential women scientists in chemistry'

Ask students to work in pairs. They could read the article and take it in turns to underline

  • the names of the women scientists in green.
  • the scientists work in blue
  • the recognition they recieved e.g. prizes in red.

Ask them to summarise the information in a mind map or timeline to show the connections between the scientists, their work and the work of others.

Going further

Ask students to find out about the life and work of a female scientist who interests them. They could think about any difficulties that they faced and reasons why they succeeded.

See the Guardian article for or the the Royal Institution blog article for more examples. See the RSC's '175 faces of Chemistry' webpage for some contemporary scientists.

Explore the work of other women scientists with the Teachit Science resources Marie Curie, Hertha Ayrton and Elsie Widdowson.

Teachit