PFI-RP: Mobile Technology to Improve Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) College and Career Awareness for Underserved High School Students

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation – Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project lies in its ability to expose underserved students to postsecondary possibilities through mobile games and allows students to envision themselves in educational and occupational spaces. Low-income, minority, and first-generation (first-gen) students in the U.S. often have inadequate academic preparation and an unrealistic understanding of the education and career opportunities for their future lives.

This lack of knowledge can have severe long-term consequences for job opportunities, wages, health and well-being in adulthood. While some educational technologies have been used to assist minority and low income students with navigating their college and career pathways, serious mobile gamification in this field is ripe for development and systematic evaluation.

This project is unique in that it develops a mobile application that focuses exclusively on college and career planning to further personalize a student’s goals, timelines, and resources. Given the cost-effective nature of mobile app technology, this project has the potential to quickly disseminate information with instant feedback not readily available in formal classrooms, career counseling, or informal settings outside of school while keeping expenses to a minimum, making it a valuable resource for underserved students.

The proposed project aims to develop a digital intervention for underserved low income and minority students that creates unique learning opportunities where students can build knowledge and skills related to education and career pathways as they play a series of mobile games designed for that purpose. This innovative educational resource has shown to facilitate synergistic, informational partnerships among schools, community organizations, local businesses, and postsecondary institutions to share and provide resources that advance students’ awareness and progress in STEM college and career pathways.

Further empirical evaluation of the game will contribute to the growing body of research and practice to expand STEM career pathways for low income and minority students and allow the research team to iterate the game prototype. Data derived from this project will support the inclusion of application-based technology and strategic planning for high school programs that can enhance and improve participation in STEM while directly supporting efforts of business plan development, customer discovery, and commercialization services to bring the prototype to market.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.