Caduceus Quest: A digital game using civic science to increase youth interest and skills in STEM

Civic science has the potential to combat longstanding racial and gender disparities in STEM by encouraging youth to use their scientific skills to solve issues that are relevant and meaningful to them. In the current study, using civic science as a framework, we evaluate a digital game, Caduceus Quest, designed by our team to increase youths’ science skills, STEM efficacy, and civic engagement. Participants included 125 adolescents from the United States (31.2% Asian/Asian American, 24.8% White, 17.6% Black; 62.4% female; 24.8% male; 12.8% transgender or gender diverse). Using a mixed methods pre/post design, we found increases in youths’ scientific skills, scientific self-efficacy, interest in STEM, and civic engagement, which were retained at follow-up 2-4 weeks later. To create Caduceus Quest, we privileged the voices of youth of color and foregrounded diversity in STEM as a central aspect of our design methodology. Qualitative data revealed players’ increased understanding of how science can be used for civic engagement, the importance of diversity in STEM, and the effectiveness of digital games in increasing concrete scientific skills. Collectively, the findings underscore the effectiveness of using games in science education particularly when the content of the game is informed by frameworks (e.g., civic science) that center issues that are relevant and meaningful to young people. Caduceus Quest moved beyond the standard STEM educational games framework by using a contextualized, narrative, and interactive version of civic science. Keywords: Science education, civic science, game-based education, adolescence