Engaging adolescents' interest in pursuing careers in health science and the health professions offers significant promise for building our nation's healthcare and health research capacity. The goal of this project is to create Health Quest, an intelligent game-based learning environment that increases adolescents' knowledge of, interest in, and self-efficacy to pursue health science careers.
Three specific aims will be accomplished by the project: 1. Design and develop Health Quest to engage adolescents' interest in the health sciences utilizing personalized learning technologies that integrate the following components: (a) the Health Quest Career Adventure Game, an intelligent game-based learning environment that leverages AI technologies to create personalized health career adventures; (b) the Health Quest Student Discovery website, which will feature interactive video interviews with health professionals about their biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research careers; and (c) the Health Quest Teacher Resource Center website, which will provide online professional development materials and in-class support for teachers' classroom implementation of Health Quest. 2. Investigate the impact of Health Quest on adolescents' (1) knowledge of biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research careers; (2) interest in biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research careers; and (3) self- efficacy for pursuing biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research careers by conducting a matched comparison study in middle school classes. ! 3. Examine the effect of Health Quest on diverse adolescents by gender and racial/ethnicity. Working closely with underrepresented minorities throughout all design and development phases of the project, the project team will specifically design Health Quest to develop girls' and members of underrepresented groups' knowledge of, interest in, and self-efficacy to pursue health science careers.
ThegoalofthisprojectistocreateHealthQuest,animmersivecareeradventuregamethatdeeplyengages adolescents?interestinhealthsciencecareers.HealthQuestwillleveragesignificantadvancesinpersonalized learningtechnologiestocreateonlineinteractionsthatenableadolescentstovirtuallyexplorehealthresearch careersinaction.TheprojectwillinvestigatetheimpactofHealthQuestonadolescents?knowledgeof,interest in, and self-efficacy to pursue health science careers/research and examine the effect of Health Quest on diverseadolescentsbygenderandracial/ethnicity.
