Women and Games Proven Practices

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.

Women and Games Collection

Gender in Gaming Portal Connects Educators and Video Game Developers

  • A gateway of academic research, Investigaming.com features 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 provides examples of how the research can be applied.

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What Kind of Educational Computer Games Would Girls Like?

  • The authors describe how The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, a computer game, uses techniques such as gender-neutral characters and storytelling to help get female and male students interested in higher-level mathematical and strategic thinking.

Source:

Rubin, Andree, Megan Murray, Kim O'Neil, Juania Ashley, "What Kind of Educational Computer Games Would Girls Like?," AERA Presentation, April 1997, TERC 1998.

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High School Girls Use PicoCrickets to Learn Programming Skills

  • In 2007, high school girls at Oakland Tech High School in Oakland, California studied circuitry, bridge building, soldering, toy design, green design and robotics through Techbridge’s science, technology and engineering outreach program. Among the resources used to teach the girls were PicoCricket Kits, which mixes robotics and programming with creativity in design. Read about the program’s positive effects on the girls’ self-confidence and interest in computer programming.

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Zoombinis and the Art of Mathematical Play

  • The designers of The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis explain how the computer game makes math fun for girls and young women, while introducing concepts such as logical relationships, graphing and algebra.

Source:

Hancock, Chris and Scot Osterweil, "Zoombinis and the Art of Mathematical Play," Hands On!, Volume 19, No. 1, Spring 1996.

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