Educational games that can both build technology skills and appeal to female interests will result in women and girls being more prepared for the technology classroom.
Gender in Gaming Portal Connects Educators and Video Game Developers Download PDF Now Investigaming.com is a gateway of academic research with over 300 articles that helps game developers make games that appeal to female players. Carrie Heeter, Project Leader and Editor-in-Chief of Investigaming describes the benefits of connecting researchers and game designers, and gives examples of how the articles can be used.
High School Girls Use PicoCrickets to Learn Programming SkillsDownload PDF Now In 2007, 14 high school girls at Oakland Tech High School in Oakland, California spent an hour and a half each week studying circuitry, bridge building, soldering, toy design, green design and robotics through the Techbridge program's science, technology and engineering outreach. Among the resources used to teach the girls were PicoCricket Kits, which mixes robotics and programming with creativity in design. By the end of the 5 week PicoCrickets course, girls were excited about the possibilities of computer programming and were no longer wary of their own abilities to program.
PicoCrickets: Girl Friendly Kits that Teach Robotics and Engineering Skills See PicoCrickets in Action at WomenTechStore.com PicoCricket Kits engage your female students in robotics, programming, math, science, and engineering principles! PicoCrickets are tiny computers that can make things spin, light up, and play music! As your female students work on PicoCricket project themes, they learn important math, science, and engineering principles -- and gain a deeper understanding of the process of design and invention. Your girls (or boys!) can plug lights, motors, sensors, and other devices into a PicoCricket, then program them to react, interact, and communicate. Let your students' creativity thrive with the many possibilities that PicoCrickets provide!
The CalWomenTech Project is Funded by The Program for Research on Gender in Science and Engineering from The National Science Foundation - Grant no. 0533564
