Prognosis--A Game-Based Intervention to Improve STEM Skills

The purpose of this study is to evaluate a game-based intervention (Prognosis) designed to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills among high school-aged students.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Prognosis

Detailed Description

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usability, feasibility, and acceptability of a game-based intervention (Prognosis) designed to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills among high school-aged students. The research questions are as follows:

H1: Students will find Prognosis usable, feasible, and acceptable and recommend continued development and testing of Prognosis.

H2: After playing Prognosis, students will be able to perform basic quantitative data skills such as calculating incidence and prevalence.

H3: After playing Prognosis, students will be able to observe patterns in data at the neighborhood and city level.

H4: After playing Prognosis, students will be able to construct explanations and models describing the organization of systems in the game and how they contribute to health outcomes.

H5: After playing Prognosis, students will be able to formulate and test hypotheses for how to best coordinate various city systems and leverage finite resources to reach their target health goal.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 90
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Enrolled in study site high school
• 9th or 10th grade at time of study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Students not in 9th and 10th grade

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Intervention; All participants enrolled in the study will play Prognosis, the intervention being assessed in this study.

Behavioral: Prognosis; Prognosis will be a single-player 2D, digital simulation game and supporting multimedia website. Players are situated as a major official of Hexacago, and tasks them with managing the city's finances, education levels, and health concerns to lower rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. In the game Prognosis, player dispatches professionals from a variety of fields to different neighborhoods around the city, observing the effects of their resource allocation decisions across multiple systems over many in-game months. The supporting multimedia website will house curriculum and learning tools to support the learning objectives of Prognosis.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Acceptability of the game-based intervention Prognosis as assessed by participants	questionnaire	immediately after completing the intervention
Feasibility of the game-based intervention Prognosis	questionnaire	immediately after completing the intervention
Usability of the game-based intervention Prognosis	questionnaire	immediately after completing the intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Assessing participants' ability to solve quantitative epidemiological problems	Administered through a survey, questions derived from the Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice, Third Edition, An Introduction to Applied Epidemiology and Biostatistics https://www.cdc.gov/ophss/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/index.html	immediately after completing the intervention
Perceived self-efficacy to learn STEM concepts	5 questions asking students about their perceived self-efficacy relating to achieving learning objectives. Developed for this study.	immediately after completing the intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Chicago

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Anticipated): May 1, 2018
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): May 1, 2019
• Study Completion (Anticipated): September 1, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 5, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 23, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): January 31, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 14, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 12, 2018
• Last Verified: February 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: STEM Skills
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB17-1416

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No