Planetary Health and Environmental Justice in Construction Career Education (EJT-CTE)

Stanford University

Status: Begins enrollment in 5 months

Conditions: Environmental Exposure; Attitude; Health Knowledge; Practice

Treatments: Behavioral: Traditional Technical Curriculum; Behavioral: Community-Centered Design Curriculum with EJT

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07315919

DGE-2146755 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

IRB-84369

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study tests whether a new educational curriculum can help high school students in construction career programs better understand how building design affects community health and environmental justice. The study compares two approaches: (1) a new "Community-Centered Design" curriculum that uses the Ecosystem Justice Translator (EJT) software tool, which helps students see connections between construction decisions, energy efficiency, nature exposure, and health outcomes in different neighborhoods; versus (2) the traditional construction career curriculum that focuses on technical skills. Students aged 14-18 enrolled in construction career programs will be randomly assigned to one of these two groups. Over 6 months, the intervention group will learn to use the EJT tool and apply environmental justice concepts to construction projects. Researchers will measure how well students understand connections between construction, environment, and health at the start, middle, and end of the program, and again 6 months later. The goal is to determine if integrating environmental justice and health concepts into construction education improves students' awareness of how their future work can help or harm community health, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Enrollment: 40 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 14 to 18 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age 14-18 years at enrollment
• Current enrollment in a participating construction career pathway program (minimum 2nd semester)
• Ability to participate in 6-month curriculum during regular CTE class periods
• Written informed consent from parent/guardian for participants under 18 years
• Written assent from student participant
• Ability to complete assessments in English (with accommodations as needed)

Exclusion criteria

• Prior participation in a formal environmental justice or planetary health curriculum within the past 12 months
• Expected inability to complete study assessments due to planned relocation or program withdrawal
• Concurrent enrollment in another research study involving educational interventions

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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40 participants in 2 patient groups

Community-Centered Design Curriculum with EJT

Experimental group

Description:

6-month Community-Centered Design curriculum integrating the Ecosystem Justice Translator (EJT). Structure: Weeks 1-4 foundations of planetary health and environmental justice; Weeks 5-10 EJT module training; Weeks 11-18 community engagement project with local stakeholder interviews; Weeks 19-24 capstone design project. Delivered during regular CTE class periods (\~4 hours weekly). Students work in teams of 3-4 on authentic community challenges. EJT is a web-based computational system with four modules: Community Voice Equity Translation (CVET), Ecosystem Service Health Integration (ESHI), Environmental Justice Investment Prioritization (EJIP), and Uncertainty, Bias, and Risk Quantification (UBR).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Community-Centered Design Curriculum with EJT

CONTROL

Active Comparator group

Description:

Standard construction career curriculum per California CTE Model Curriculum Standards: building codes and permitting, construction safety (OSHA 10), blueprint reading and computer-aided design (CAD), materials science and selection, basic carpentry and framing. Control participants receive equal contact hours (\~4 hours weekly for 24 weeks) without explicit health equity, environmental justice, or planetary health content. Control participants will be offered access to intervention materials and EJT software after study completion (waitlist control design).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Traditional Technical Curriculum