Hexacago Health Academy 2.0: a board game and augmented reality game intervention to promote STEM/health knowledge and career interest

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PROJECT ABSTRACT Hexacago Health Academy 2.0 (HHA 2.0) builds upon the success of a prior Science Education Partnership Award in which the Hexacago board, a game board depicting the city of Chicago with an overlay of hexagons, was used to teach game design, enabling youth to design and play STEM/health games. For HHA 2.0, the Hexacago board and board game suite will inform the design of Hexacago Health Academy 2.0 Game On (HHA 2.0 GO), a theory-based, game-based STEM/health pathway program for high-performing, rising 11th grade students from groups currently underrepresented in STEM/health fields who attend Chicago Public Schools. The multidisciplinary University of Chicago team shares a commitment to using game-based learning experiences to empower youth with the skills, capacity, and support to achieve optimal health and wellbeing. The team will design HHA 2.0 GO to incorporate game-based learning. They will also design The UChicago STEM/Health Pathway Program (UC-SPP), a traditional pathway program, to serve as a comparison arm. HHA 2.0 GO will rely on the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) and the extant literature on the SCCT for racial and ethnic minorities and STEM careers. Both programs will include a two-week summer intensive and ten academic year booster sessions. Educational content will cover STEM/health topics, STEM/health careers, and the College Admissions process. Young people will be randomized to either HHA 2.0 GO (n=72) or UC-SPP (n=72). Youth not randomized to either program will be asked to serve as a non-intervention control group (n=56). Surveys and focus groups will be used to compare outcomes across the two intervention groups and the non-intervention control group during, immediately post, and at one-year post intervention. The study hypothesis is that students randomized to HHA 2.0 GO will score higher on a composite measure of knowledge, self-efficacy, interest, goals and behaviors regarding STEM/health topics, STEM/health careers, and the college admissions process short term and longitudinally compared to those randomized to UC-SPP and compared to those in the non-intervention control group.