Step Up for STEM and Health Careers

May 7, 2025 updated by: Nicole Thomas, Ohio State University

Step up for STEM and Health Careers: An Interactive Digital Resource to Reduce STEM-related Biases and Improve High School STEM Learning Environments

The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to evaluate "Step Up for STEM and Health Careers". The "Step Up for STEM and Health Careers" ("Step Up") game is an interactive, digital resource that includes the key elements of a bystander intervention for high school students to understand the importance of diversity in STEM; it also addresses skills, attitudes, and awareness to attain positive STEM identities and mitigate bias and harassment in STEM and health learning environments.

Participants in the intervention arm will be asked to complete the Step Up interactive game; participants in the comparison group will be asked to view a PowerPoint presentation on bias and harassment in STEM/health fields as the control experience. The Step Up game intervention and study outcomes are theory-based (Theory of Planned Behavior, Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT)): we will assess the impact of Step Up on attitudes about STEM/health careers, STEM/health career self-efficacy, and bystander behavior.

Study Overview

Status

Terminated

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The goal of this randomized control trial is to evaluate the impact of the "Step Up for STEM and Health Careers" intervention game on STEM/health career and bystander attitudes, as well as self-efficacy. Participants will be randomly assigned to participate in either the Step Up intervention game or the educational PowerPoint presentation.

The "Step Up for STEM and Health Careers" intervention consists of students playing a "Step Up" game to help them understand the importance of diversity in STEM and health careers, attain STEM/health career self-efficacy, and create an inclusive learning environment for others. The control group consists of an educational PowerPoint presentation on the importance of diversity in STEM and health careers, STEM/health career self-efficacy, and creating an inclusive learning environment for others.

The Step Up intervention game (created by Resilient Games Studio (RGS)) consists of six digital episodes that focus on a specific topic: importance of diversity in STEM careers, heuristics and biases, structural biases and intersectionality, harassment, sexual harassment, and bystander behaviors. Each episode includes interactive mini-games to teach theory-based skills and lessons. Adult characters, who serve as "in-game" STEM/health role models, are integrated throughout the game. The game was built based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to improve STEM/health career and bystander attitudes, as well as self-efficacy.

The educational PowerPoint presentation on bias and harassment in STEM/health fields was also created by RGS and will be used as a control experience for adolescent participants. The PowerPoint presentation will contain sections that correspond to each of the episode topics of the Step Up intervention game.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

24

Phase

  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Ohio
      • Columbus, Ohio, United States, 43202
        • Ohio State University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • English-speaking
  • Access to a computer and internet connection
  • Live in Chicago Metropolitan Area
  • Current high school student (enrolled in grade 9-12); or in 12th grade in 2023-2024 school year

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Step Up for STEM Careers Game Intervention
Youth in the intervention group will play a six-episode, interactive game on the importance of diversity in STEM and health careers, STEM/health career self-efficacy, and creating an inclusive learning environment for others. This includes featuring diverse youth who model STEM/health self-efficacy; integrating STEM/health professional characters as "in-game" content experts and role models; and incorporating mini games to reinforce skills and behavior.
Behavioral: Step Up for STEM and Health Careers ("Step Up") game
Step Up for STEM and Health Careers ("Step Up") game is an interactive, digital resource to help high school students understand the importance of diversity in STEM and health careers, attain STEM/health career self-efficacy, and help them create an inclusive learning environment for others.
Active Comparator: Educational PowerPoint
Youth in the comparator group will complete an educational PowerPoint presentation on the importance of diversity in STEM and health careers, STEM/health career self-efficacy, and creating an inclusive learning environment for others. This PowerPoint presentation will contain sections that correspond to each episode of the Step Up for STEM and Health Careers intervention.
Behavioral: Educational PowerPoint Presentation on Diversity in STEM Careers
An educational PowerPoint on Diversity in STEM careers to increase adolescents' STEM/health career self-efficacy, and help them create an inclusive learning environment for others.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
STEM/health career attitudes using modified Career Interest (Christensen, et al., 2014) and STEM Semantics (Knezek and Christensen, 2008) questionnaires
Time Frame: From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
One's beliefs about outcomes associated with STEM/health careers
From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
STEM/health career self-efficacy using a modified Career Interest Questionnaire (Christensen, et al., 2014)
Time Frame: From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
The perception one has the requisite skills and capabilities for attaining a STEM/health career
From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Intent to pursue a STEM/health career using a modified Career Interest Questionnaire (Christensen, et al., 2014)
Time Frame: From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
One's intent to pursue a STEM/health career
From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
Knowledge of the value of diversity in STEM/health careers using a questionnaire
Time Frame: From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
One's knowledge of the value of diversity in STEM/health careers
From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
Intent to intervene as a bystander when witnessing harassment on the basis of race, gender, disability status, etc., using a questionnaire derived from the Bystander Questionnaire (Garza et al., 2023; McMahon and Banyard, 2012)
Time Frame: From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
One's intent to intervene as a bystander when witnessing harassment on the basis of race, gender, disability status, etc.
From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Ohio State University

Collaborators

University of Chicago
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Resilient Games Studio

Investigators

  • Study Director: Tim Parsons, Resilient Games Studio

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

July 2, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 21, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

March 21, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 21, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 31, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

June 6, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 13, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 7, 2025

Last Verified

May 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2023B0273

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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