Planetjemma.com is an innovative and creative site that has been designed to encourage more young women to study physics at university. Launched earlier this year by the UK’s lottery-funded National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), the site is aimed at girls aged between 14 and 16. It centres on the activities of Jemma Campbell, a fictitious first-year physics student at the imaginary Wells University.

Rather than merely being a source of information, the site has an online video diary made by Jemma, and includes interactive features like daily e-mails and text-message games from Jemma herself. There are also profiles of female physicists – like fusion scientist Yasmin Andrews from the Joint European Torus project – as well as notes on weird and wonderful aspects of physics like black holes or quantum entanglement.

As a depiction of life as a female physics undergraduate, parts of the video diary ring horribly true. Geeky course mates, disastrous practicals and sexist lab demonstrators all featured in my degree. On the other hand, having an inspirational teacher like Jemma’s astrophysics tutor Dr Shepherd would have been great. So does the site appeal to teenagers?

My 16-year-old sister Hannah finds the interactive aspects of the site the most appealing, but her main grudge is the lack of physics on the site. “The ‘physics notes’ sections do not include much of a real scientific explanation,” she says. As for encouraging girls to study physics, the danger is that the site could merely appeal to the converted. “It did not put me off physics, but then I am already interested in the subject,” adds Hannah. “I do not think it will make much of a difference to girls who did not like physics already. It might, however, encourage some girls to go to university because it makes doing a degree look achievable.”

This article was written by Bekki Pearce who is completing an MSc in science, culture and communication at the University of Bath, UK, e-mail bekki_pearce@hotmail.com

Planetjemma.com details the life of a 19-year-old student called Jemma from the Isle of Wight, who is currently doing a degree in physics and astrophysics. As we are interested in studying physics ourselves, we found it particularly useful to have an insight into Jemma’s world and how she copes with life, study and even romance.

After signing in, users are free to roam the many pages and menus incorporated within the site. Jemma even sends a personal daily e-mail, so you do not miss anything. The site is extremely well animated, futuristic and would therefore definitely appeal to younger people. The menus are easy to use and the site is relatively simple to navigate. However, it took us quite a while to find an area of the site that focuses on physics. Another problem is that the site does not emphasize the course structures and interesting topics that Jemma has covered.

Although there are a few links to items on the BBC website about quantum teleportation, the site lacks links to related articles and there is little substance to it. Jemma could also have said more about college life, which would help people like ourselves who are thinking of going to university. Another idea would be some sort of forum to allow people – especially students from different universities – to share their views. This would help to give a broader insight into the different physics courses that are available.

Tessa Bircham, Hannah Gilbert, Emily Graham,Lindsey Mehrer and Nicola Wood are year-12 pupils at Parkstone Grammar School, Poole, Dorset, UK