Gender and the communication of physics through multimedia

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the evaluation of a public understanding of a science project that presented the physics of "time travel" to 16-18 year olds through a CD-based interactive game. The results reveal interesting, and counterintuitive, gender differences. After an overview of the more typical gender biases found in physics and technology, the paper presents possible reasons for the gender differences found in this study. In particular, the effects of prior expectations are considered, as is the role of narrative and characterization and the adoption of the science-fictional device of time travel. The dichotomizing by boys (but not by girls) of the factual and the educational on the one hand and the speculative and leisure on the other, emerges as a key feature in the players' reactions to this game. The paper finishes by discussing how these issues may be of relevance more generally in attempts to communicate science through multimedia.