Only One Day: A Mobile Game Transforming Middle School Students into Future Emergency Medical Professionals

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Schell Games in partnership with WestEd proposes to create a mobile adventure game entitled Only One Day in which middle school players are able to experience the excitement of one day in an emergency department ED from the perspective of various ED roles physicians nurses therapists etc Players will experience the same day multiple times across sessions moving between physician and staff positions completing associated medical tasks and making decisions about patient care and physician and staff interactions and collaborations To have a successful day and complete the game players must use engineering design skills as defined by the Next Generation Science Standards to define problems for both patients and staff develop and test models of behavior interpret evidence gained from these models and use that evidence to inform their problem solving Because players must experience the same day in multiple iterations they must use information obtained during previous iterations of that day to inform how to effectively and efficiently solve problems with patients and staff This game is designed to take place within min sessions Each session will represent one day in the emergency room By the final session players should have developed enough knowledge about both their medical decisions for their patients and their between character interactions to play the ideal day and thus beat the game The project goals are to develop and improve middle school studentsandapos engineering design skills through gameplay familiarize students with ED professions including required medical knowledge and steps to achieve this career goal and change the perception of racial and ethnic diversity within ED roles WestEd will conduct usability and feasibility testing with students teachers and content experts to ensure that the Phase I product is the best possible one and provide useful information for development of future Phase II product plans PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE In this project middle school students will further develop and refine their engineering design skills as outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards within the context of a mobile game set in the context of an emergency department The emergency department represents an important setting given recent increases in emergency department patient visits and projected decreases in numbers of employed physicians Through this game students will a define and solve patient and staff problems by interpreting evidence gained through iterative gameplay and b learn roles responsibilities and requirements of emergency department physicians and staff