I’ve updated my poster pack for my lab that has 36 mini posters of successful women in physics. I wanted the girls who came into the lab to see a future pathway for themselves right there. I wanted them to walk into the room and think this is a subject for them and a career for them as much as anyone else. These women are not in the textbooks.
Unusually for most wall displays in classrooms, students (and visitors) stop to read the stories. Not only that, when I’m telling the tale of a discovery I can quickly point to the relevant one.
I took the photos from the internet so I can’t profit from it so happy for it to go far and wide. There are two up on each A4 so just print each page in colour and cut out to make your display.
The idea was to make these scientists look real, normal, varied and relevant, on first name terms. I chose the best photos I could find close to the age where they did their best work. In two cases I used actors portraying the person; anything to bring these women to life and for our girls to see themselves in them.
Let me know if you get them up somewhere and if anyone comments on it!
Thanks to translation by @vincent_grgoire we now have a version in French!
This new version has all the images in colour (I’ve colourised the black and white photos) and increased the quality of the images.
I’ve been delighted to hear that other physics teachers have downloaded it and put it on their lab walls. It’s now in around 50 classrooms around the country.
Download your new copy as a PDF here (Heddy Lamarr typo is now fixed and Andrea Ghez added):
Ding! 