Designing a Narrative-Centered Game to Promote AI Literacy and Health Career Exploration

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform industries across society, it is having a profound impact on healthcare and biomedical research. To prepare students for this evolving landscape, there is a growing need for learning experiences that build foundational AI literacy and connect to real-world career pathways. However, most middle school students lack access to engaging and personally meaningful opportunities in AI education and career exploration. NarrativeCentered Learning (NCL) offers powerful affordances for contextualizing AI literacy through engaging storylines and role-based problem-solving. In parallel, Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) emphasizes how students' beliefs about their abilities, expectations about outcomes, and personal goals influence the development of their academic and career trajectories. This paper introduces a design framework that integrates NCL and SCCT to foster both AI literacy and health-related career interest. We apply this framework to the design of a narrative game in which students take on the role of a medical intern investigating virtual patient cases using AI tools. We report findings from a usability study with 25 middle school students who played the game's first episode and participated in structured focus groups. Student feedback suggests that the game supported engagement, sparked curiosity, and encouraged emerging career interest. These findings offer preliminary support for the framework and inform the design of career-connected AI learning.