Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/253269875550033?p=hFBtigRwV6yXosWAkW

Meeting ID: 253 269 875 550 033

• Dr. Jing Wen - School of Building Construction, Georgia Tech (advisor)

• Dr. Omobolanle Ogunseiju - School of Building Construction, Georgia Tech

• Dr. Ebenezer Fanijo - School of Building Construction, Georgia Tech

• Dr. Yalong Yang - School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech

• Dr. Hyo Kang - Digital Worlds Institute, University of Florida

Title:
Fostering Sustainability Literacy and Construction Career Development Through Interactive Virtual Reality: An Experiential Learning Approach for High School Students

Abstract:
The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector is a critical driver of global decarbonization, yet the industry faces a widening gap between the demand for green building competencies and the supply of qualified professionals. Cultivating a future-ready workforce requires early educational interventions, but high school students often lack exposure to the AEC industry as a technology-enabled and socially meaningful career path. Furthermore, existing outreach efforts frequently treat sustainability education and career exposure as separate entities, leaving a critical gap in how we jointly support environmental comprehension and vocational development. To bridge this gap, this study investigates GreenBuildVR, an interactive virtual reality-based intervention designed for high school students. Grounded in the Green Building Literacy framework and Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), this study outlines four core objectives: 1) evaluating the intervention’s impact on students’ sustainability literacy; 2) assessing its effect on sustainable construction career development; 3) examining the predictive relationship between these two domains; and 4) exploring how these effects vary across contextual factors. The empirical assessment will be conducted with high school students in a summer camp setting using a pretest–posttest intervention evaluation design. This research is expected to yield an empirically grounded understanding of how VR-based intervention supports both sustainability literacy and career development among high school students. It will clarify how literacy-related constructs are associated with SCCT-based career development constructs and how student background, prior experience, and VR-related learning experience factors moderate intervention effects. The study contributes by integrating sustainability literacy and career development into a coherent VR-based intervention model, offering a construct-measure framework for pre-college sustainable construction education, and providing design guidance for AEC outreach programs seeking to support future sustainable workforce pathways.