“Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day” – and a Girl Engineer’s Thoughts on Engineering and Math

Sorry for the long hiatus, folks, but between my job and planning my wedding (oh, and I’ve been seeing another blog – gasp!) I’ve been swamped. Still, in the midst of my schoolwork and wedding plans, I’ve come across a topic that I think warrants some discussion, and I think this is a better forum for it than my new blog.

Recently, several co-workers and family members made me aware that during National Engineer Week there was a day specifically named “Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day.” The whole purpose was, you guessed it, to introduce more girls to engineering subjects and jobs (and to try to figure out why more girls and women aren’t entering the engineering fields).

A recent article in Fortune stated that despite efforts taken by STEM events, multiple engineering firms and corporations, nonprofits, and events such as National Engineer Week, the percentage of women in engineering fields is still quite small. I’m used to that on the Army side, but then I’m also used to being in a population where women make up a very small minority – at West Point, there are only 10-15% of us at a given time, and I’ve been in battalion-size units (between 800-1000 people) where I’ve been one of only six women. Working in that kind of environment partly inspired this blog – it’s a place where I can get back in touch with my feminine side!

Just as a side note, there are a lot of efforts working to change that and integrate more women into the “combat” side of things (which boils down to getting us legal ability and recognition for doing the stuff we’ve been doing for the last…I would say ten years, but my mom’s Aunt Jeanne was a combat nurse and she was hardly behind the “safe lines” so I’ll say for the last sixty years). Will this change our numbers though? Even if all gender rules were abolished from the military, you’d still have to find women who’d want to slog through the mud carrying heavy gear, kick down doors, blow things up, throw punches when needed, and so forth. There are quite a few nuts like me out there – I’ve worked with quite a few women who have no qualms about getting done what needs to get done, never-mind the load, and I’ve seen them just as often lugging around police riot gear or firefighting equipment, but I also know plenty of women who balk at the idea. I also know, after having discussions with my wonderfully chivalrous future hubs, that there are plenty of men out there who balk at the idea of their women going charging into the fray like Amazons. They know we can kick ass, but there’s that chivalrous streak in them that wants to protect. I suppose it’s no different than the trepidation an Army wife feels at sending her husband off to war – they know their husbands are capable, but no one likes to see a loved one go into danger.

Okay, that’s the Army side of things, and some might argue that it’s very different thinking that would keep women out of combat ranks than that which keeps women out of science, math, and engineering jobs. From what I’ve seen, it’s not so different. I mean, how many times have you heard the arguments that “women can’t lift heavy objects” and “women can’t pass the physical requirements” used to justify military gender restrictions? It’s no different from telling our young girls in grade school that it’s okay if they don’t do well in math classes because “girls are bad at math.”

We all start with a certain level of capability - if a 5’7″ and some change female former power lifter comes along (like moi, for example), she’s going to have an easier time with an engineer combat load than the 5’1″ girl who might do great in the 3200-meter race. That same female power lifter is going to have to work her butt off to get the max score on the 2-mile event on her fitness test, but she can do it if she practices, just like the 5’1″ girl (or the 5’1″ guy that the Army kept sending my company, for that matter) is going to have to go to the dining facility, bloody well eat something, and hit the gym before taking part in a mission. Otherwise, sorry, Charlie, you’re staying in the truck. Why? Because the standard engineer pack weighs more than you do.

What does this have to do with the price of beans? Well, my attitude towards my gender and job is pretty similar to my attitude toward math and engineering. Everyone has a starting point, but math, like the physical fitness test, is something that requires practice. Just like you don’t take your physical fitness test without doing some kind of train-up, you can’t expect to take the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam without practicing! The people who just assume that it’s okay to say they’re bad at math don’t understand that they’re bad because they haven’t undergone the right practice. I don’t know how people are even allowed to say that. We don’t all go around saying we’re bad at reading and writing, because there would be a great stigma attached to it – why don’t we feel the same way about people saying they’re bad at math?

And why the hell don’t we think about that before we tell our girls that it’s okay to be bad at math?

Bottom line, if we want to change girls’ attitudes about math and engineering professions, we have to change our attitude about math and our attitude toward our girls. Math isn’t a gift from the gods above – it’s something you have to earn, just like physical fitness, just like anything else that requires hard work, and if we let our girls (or our boys, for that matter) hide behind the excuse that they’re naturally not good at math, we’re never going to see them improve.

If I ever end up having a daughter, she’s going to know that her mom is an engineer and teaches math, and by golly, after dinner and before TV, she’s going to do her chores, practice her piano, and practice her math.

Bucket Lists: A Look at Lifetime Goal-Setting

“The only people who fear death are those with regrets.” ~Anon.

Recently, my parents were out at a silent auction, and my dad decided he was going to bid on a wonderful package offered by Likhulu Safaris.  Much to our surprise, sometime next summer, he’ll be heading to South Africa to go on safari!

We weren’t surprised that he won.  Somehow, whenever my dad signs up for something, buys a raffle ticket, or enters a drawing of some kind, he wins.  And while I want to say that we were surprised my dad decided he was going to go off on safari, we weren’t, not really.  My dad has been checking off “bucket list” items before we even knew it was called a bucket list.

What is a Bucket List, you ask?  Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson aside, a bucket list is simply a list of life goals, or all the things you want to do before you die.

This might be more important than you think.

Zorbing in Tennessee!

The studies conducted by Zimmerman et al using graduate students as a model showed that goal setting was a highly significant predictor of student grades at the end of the semester (Zimmerman et al, 1992).  Most of this seems to be due to the contrast in self-efficacy (i.e. belief in their own competence) between students who set goals for themselves and students who did not.  The ones who set goals for themselves believed they could achieve them, and the ones who did not had nothing to strive for.

Goal setting has proven to be just as important in the business world.  Productivity measurements in studies conducted by Pritchard et al show that productivity measurements increase with almost the same correlation value as in the students’ grades when working groups and organizations set goals for themselves compared to those who did not (Pritchard et al, 1988).

So we set goals for our academics, and for our work…why not do the same things for our lives?  Why not set out a series of benchmarks that you want to accomplish through your life, and then plan how to accomplish them?

Ballooning in Charlottesville, VA!

I came across a blog article on The Personal Excellence Blog that does a great job covering the wisdom behind a bucket list (thanks, Celes!).  When framing your day, you can get the most effective use out of your day with goal setting and proper planning.  And there are plenty of resources out there that tell you how to do it. 

Anyone who’s been to a goal-setting workshop knows that you need to set SMART goals – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-targeted.  So how do you do this for your life?

You can start by asking some of these questions:

• Is there anything you have ALWAYS wanted to do but just haven’t had a chance/time/motivation/energy to do?
• If you had no money constraints and no time constraints on your day, what would you do?
• What do you want to be able to tell your kids you did?
• What have you always wanted to see/do in person?
• Is there an event/skill/race/competition you have always wanted to try?
• Do you want to write? Paint? Blog?

 Turns out there are a lot of websites on there dedicated to helping you set your Bucket List goals and reach them.  Here are some of the sites I recommend for starting your own personal Bucket List:

1. 43 Things
2. Barefoot List
3. Bucket List Ideas – 100 Things
4. My Bucket List
5. BucketList.net
6. The Thrilling Heroics Bucket List
7. Kickass Bucket List
8. 100 Things – 6 Help Sites

In case you need some additional info, here’s a link to my new blog site, where I’ll be making my own ever-evolving bucket list and seeing how well I do setting my own life goals and trying to reach them!

Finally, if you have time in your pursuit of your own dreams, think about helping someone else achieve theirs.  The Bucket List Dream Foundation was established to help those with terminal illnesses achieve their dreams, and, of course, the Make-A-Wish Foundation does the same thing for young children.

Happy goal setting, and see you out at the dropzone!

Four-Way Formation over Dillingham Airfield, HI

References:

1.  Zimmerman, B. J., A. Bandura, and M. Martinez-Ponz (1992).  “Self Motivation for Academic Attainment:  The Role of Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Goal Setting.”  American Educational Research Journal, vol. 29, no. 23 (663-676).

2.  Pritchard, R. D., S. D. Jones, P. Roth, K. Steubing, and S. Ekeberg (1988).  “Effects of Group Feedback, Goal Setting, and Incentives on Organizational Productivity.”  Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 73, no. 2 (337-358).

Our “On-Demand” Generation

I had a minor epiphany when the #dcquake struck yesterday, rattling us all the way up the Hudson River Valley.  After shaking off the vertigo, I jumped on my trusty iPhone to find out if what we had experienced was, in fact, an earthquake, and not just a train crashing into the basement of the building (you never know).

CNN was blaring that Gadhafi still hasn’t been found, the Post was talking about the debt ceiling and the Federal Reserve, and the Times was talking about the Dominique Strauss-Khan case, but no mention of any crashes, a rapture, or major seismic events.  But after about eight minutes, the Post and CNN began running a “breaking news” banner stating that a quake had struck D.C.

By that time, I had facebook status updates on my news feed from at least 50 friends on the east coast talking about the quake, Twitter already had a hashtag set, and everyone was sharing pictures of “damages.”  One of my favorite places back in Charlottesville, VA, Beer Run, was offering quake trauma relief in the form of $1 off your favorite brew that afternoon via Twitter and Foursquare.

With social media carrying the day in incidents like this, and the famous spread of Twitpics from the Hudson River landing of US Airways Flight 1549, is this going to be the fate of all major news outlets?  Left behind because they just can’t carry the news fast enough to beat the social media trend?  Major news outlets argue that social media is less credible, less resourced, less reputable…but they’re missing one key point.

It’s on demand.

The Beloit College Mindset List publishes a review every year of the incoming class of college freshmen, and it calls this incoming class of 2015 “the internet class.”  It states that, among other things that depress those of us moving up in years, this class has always had internet, Amazon has always been more than just a river in South America, electric cars have always been humming along the roads, and Ferris Bueller is now old enough to have been their dad.  They’ve always had the conveniences of the age, but as these on-demand kids come into the classroom with their laptops and smart phones, we have to stop and realize that it’s not just them jumping the traditional media boat.

It’s all of us.

When was the last time you cursed at the internet for running too slowly, or were annoyed when someone took a long time returning your IM (or text message, if you still text)?  When was the last time you actually bought a DVD instead of downloading a movie from iTunes or Netflix?  Takes too much time to get to the store, right?  Remember when you had to use a VCR to schedule a recording for a TV show you were going to miss?  Or remember to set the DVR?  Now you can even get TV shows on demand, because the prep work takes too long.

We live in an on-demand world, folks.  We want everything and we want it right now.  And even though a lot of media outlets are jumping on Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, Google+, and other social media outlets to stay up to date, we’re still finding out information faster watching friends talk on Twitter than searching CNN.  Sooner or later, unless major media outlets can find a way around this trend, everyone’s going to be like me – and the only time you see CNN, NBC, BBC, or any of the other three letter giants is when you’re not fast enough with the “skip” button to skip the commercial on your DVR while you’re watching a show.

The Family that Researches Together…

Here’s a little blurb by the APS Observer about my family’s research presentation at the Association for Psychological Sciences convention in Washington D.C. last summer!  Sorry to be so absent in the blogging world, friends – this teacher-trainer workshop has kept me super busy!  I plan to get back on schedule this week as school starts up!  Hope everyone’s having a great day!

The family presenters!

Leadership and Education – Some Thoughts from a New Professor

Sorry I’ve been off the net for as long as I have!  The boyfriend and I have been busy moving ourselves from Virginia to New York, and I’m in the process of starting my new teaching position in the systems engineering department of a little university on the Hudson River!  Excited about starting my classes this coming August, but first, all of us new instructors have to complete an instructor workshop that teaches us how to teach.

View of the Hudson from Battle Monument, West Point

For those of you familiar with the Hudson Valley region and the university in question (built on the rocks, built of rocks, has been here about 200 years, and considered the nation’s preeminent leadership institution), you’ll know that no part of what we’re doing to educate our students comes without an emphasis on leadership.  Since leadership is one of my areas of study and a definite area of interest, this has been a great experience, and one fraught with potential research items!

A large portion of the West Point educational philosophy revolves around the work of Sylvanus Thayer (1785 – 1872), father of the military academy and the first superintendent, and his sometimes controversial Thayer Method of teaching (in other news, he also founded the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth).  When then Colonel Thayer assumed leadership at the military academy, the primary areas of focus were mathematics and physics, with a smattering of French since most of the textbooks the academy had on the previous two subjects were written in French.  Thayer’s challenge was teaching some 200-250 cadets with a very small faculty, and teaching them in such a way that they received a deep understanding of the subjects, not just surface learning.

The end result of his struggles was the Thayer Method: in short, cadets are responsible for teaching themselves.  They are given lesson plans and objectives, books, and time before class, and expected to gain a basic understanding of the subject so that they can come to class prepared to either work problems, give short briefings, or ask questions to fill the gaps in knowledge where they were unable to master the material themselves.  This is essentially a variation on traditional Socratic Method , where students are expected to learn through discussion and debate rather than simply having someone lecture at them.

The skills that followers of the Thayer and Socratic Methods obtain in terms of self-teaching and self-education are invaluable, especially in this fast moving age of technology and internet knowledge.  Those who expect to stay ahead can’t simply wait for someone to instruct them or for an opportunity to attend university.  They have to find ways of staying ahead of technological trends, methods of implementing new ideas, and maintaining their professional development even when fully immersed in their chosen profession.  This is a skill that many professionals and chief executives don’t learn until later in life, and sometimes never fully master.  These cadets are being taught these skills from the get go.

The faculty are likewise getting an immersion in teaching techniques that broaden their own understanding of leadership, education, and the subjects they’re teaching.  It takes far more effort on the part of an instructor to mediate a debate, judge and correct briefings and demonstration problems, and guide young researchers in their endeavours than it does to rote lecture.  Anyone can get up and give an instructional briefing, but even though it sounds like an oxymoron, it takes some definite skill to teach self-learners.  Excited to face this challenge!

On the Burner – the Dark Side of Leadership

Dr. Robert Hare stated not too long ago, “If I wasn’t studying psychopaths in prison, I’d do so at the stock exchange” (Babiak & Hare, 2006).  While recent news headlines have prominently displayed the misdeeds of corporate America and politicians in power – again and again — the public sees high-powered executives living high-flying existences apparently free of consequence (except for former Gov. Schwarzenegger and Cong. Rep. Weiner, of course), are they really psychopaths?  Is there such a thing as functional psychopathology?  Is there a reason we evolved this “dark side” of human personality?

The research says yes.

There might be a "good side" to the "dark side" after all...

In studying the various characteristics and personality traits of leaders, we’ve come across several studies that draw parallels between characteristics inherent to corporate executives and politicians and those inherent to diagnosed psychopaths: egocentrism, a willingness to exploit others, and an overall lack of empathy (Freberg et al., 2010).  Curious to see how accurate these studies and personality perceptions are, we broke out the California Q-Sort test again to do some experiments.

The California Q-Sort (CAQ) started as a tool for psychologists to standardize their subjective evaluations of patients, but has evolved as a method for quantifying first impressions of subjects in research, and using that quantification of personality to develop a personality profile.  This system has participant observers sort 100 validated personality traits into most and least characteristic categories.  The system drops these traits into nine categories with a forced distribution as follows: 5, 8, 12, 16, 18, 16, 12, 8, and 5.  The end result is a highly reliable, highly correlated personality profile.

Out of the most characteristic traits, the psychopaths and CEOs shared six of the top thirteen characteristic traits and the same least characteristic traits.  But looking at the specifics, we realize that this doesn’t make them psychopaths.  When traits like “appears poised,” “is power oriented,” “verbally fluent,” and “has social poise and presence” are among the most characteristic traits shared, we realize that these are not bad traits for CEOs and leaders to possess.

Christian Bale as "American Psycho" Patrick Bateman

The difference is in the scale.  We have all heard the expression, “Nothing personal, just business.”  The qualities that allow the CEO to do his or her job effectively and to take that into account are simply taken farther along the scale where the psychopath is concerned.  A CEO must be detached enough from his or her people to fire someone without going into histrionics, but not detached to the point of a psychopath.

Studies conducted on military cadets and leadership point out other “dark side” characteristics that emerge in leaders.  A study conducted on military cadets examined the function of narcissism in leadership (Paunonen et al., 2006), and found that in order to be successful, cadets actually had to possess characteristics associated with the “dark side” of narcissism – the ability to manipulate or manage impressions, and the possession of a large degree of self confidence.  Those cadets without those characteristics were not perceived as good leaders.  How does this work?

You can see an interesting interpretation of this in the Star Trek episode “The Enemy Within” (1966) where Capt. Kirk gets himself split into two during a transporter malfunction – his “good” half and his “dark” half.  Unfortunately, the dark half possesses all his decisiveness and his assertiveness, characteristics he needs in order to be a good commander as much as he needs the compassion that his good half possesses.  However, without the regulation of these characteristics that his good half provides, Kirk goes sliding into psychopathy with some frightening results.

The difference is in the regulation, in how our leaders are able to maintain their characteristics in balance.  Leaders need to be assertive, verbal, detached, poised, and power-oriented, but not to the degree where they do not take care of the communities depending on them.  So how do we regulate these characteristics?  What distinguishes a functional leader from an immoral psychopath?  Are the ethics, values, and mores that regulate these behaviors things we are just born with or things that must be trained?

And this is how research questions propagate

References:

Block, J. (2008).  The Q-Sort in character appraisal: Encoding subjective impressions of persons quantitatively. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association Press.

Block, J. (1961).  The Q-Sort method in personality assessment and psychiatric research.  Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Press.

Babiak, P. and Hare, R. (2006).  Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work.  New York: Harper-Collins.

D’Alessandro, D. (2004)  Career Warfare: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Personal Brand and Fighting to Keep It.  New York: McGraw-Hill.

Freberg, L., Freberg, K., and Graham, K. (2010).  ”Leaders or Snakes in Suits: Perceptions of Today’s CEOs.”  Presented at the Association for Psychological Sciences: Boston, MA.

Gaines-Ross, L. (2003)  CEO Capital: A guide to building CEO reputation and Company Success.  Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.

Goldberg, L. R. (1970) “Man vs. Model of Man: a rationale, plus some evidence, for a method of improving on clinical inferences.”  Psychological Bulletin, 73, pp. 422-432.

Paunonen, S., Lonnqvist, J. E., Verkasalo, M., Leikas, S. and Nissinen, V.  (2006).  ”Narcissism and emergent leadership in military cadets.”  The Leadership Quarterly, 17, pp. 475-486.

Reise, S. & Wink, P.  (1995) “Psychological implications of the psychopathy Q-sort.”  Journal of Personality Assessment, 65 (2), pp. 300-312.

Daily Digest: Science, Tech, and Foodie News for 15-17 June

At the rate I’m going, I might as well start making this the weekly digest!  Anyway, here’s a couple interesting tidbits I’m reading about in today’s news (follow the hotlinks for the full story):

Some interesting news in the Green Scene lately — we all want to stay green, but there are some hidden hazards of recycling…and it turns out we’re not the only era of the planet that has experienced global warming (though with California’s summer temperatures at record winter lows last year and threatening to do the same this year, they may be wondering just where the global warming is).  Turns out these weird temperature fluxes preceded previous ice ages, so we might need to look at some of the last emergences after “Snowball Earth” for guidance.  Or, if you believe the ice caps are really going to melt on us, check out these diving bell spiders, who can make their own gills…Speaking of things we thought would only happen after cold days in July, people are starting to realize the unhealthy impact of ads on body image: activists forced Yoplait to pull an ad they felt could contribute to eating disorders.  And for some real strides toward female empowerment, Saudi women have started a viral ad campaign using social media in order to gain driving rights…

Again, cafeterias enter the limelight for things that make nutritionists go “huh?”  This time, there’s one in LA that’s trying to bring back the junk food but banning chocolate milk.  Still an advocate of making your own lunch here, folks, and if you really feel enterprising, eHow teaches you how to get your kids to do their own microwave cooking.  Just make sure you teach them things like “Don’t put the fork in” and “Don’t put your sister in.”

And that’s the quick update for today!  Hope everyone has a great one!