Tools For Educating Children About Clinical Research

SummaryValidated materials and tools for children to learn about pediatric research and participating in such research are lacking We seek educational materials demonstrated to be effective in diverse pediatric populations race ethnicity culture age health status The goal is to educate children via materials and tools offered to the public as an open source product on the NHLBI s Children and Clinical Studies website to reside within the Kids Clubhouse space currently being developed Project GoalsTo develop innovative and validated tools tailored to children for purposes of this solicitation children is defined as reading age and older that will increase awareness of pediatric clinical research among children and adolescents enhance knowledge empathy and acceptance of pediatric research participants educate about general clinical research information should not be trial or disease specific in an engaging culturally sensitive and age appropriate way Tools that are of particular interest include but are not limited to o Electronic and or animated comic books o YouTube video campaign of children and adolescents sharing their personal clinical research experiences Children want to hear from other children enrolled in research to help them understand what it means to be part of a study The widely heralded projects such as It Gets Better to end bullying of GLBT youths and The Trevor Project addressing youth suicide prevention demonstrate the accessibility and public health benefit of using these technology resources o Interactive and or serious learning games o Crowd sourcing challenges that foster collaboration among children teens to address the goals for this project