Background: One significant factor in facilitating students' career intentions and persistence in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields is targeting their interests and motivation before eighth grade. To reach students at this critical stage, a design-based afterschool STEM program, titled Studio STEM, was implemented to foster motivation and engagement in STEM topics and activities. The purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to investigate how Studio STEM affected students' beliefs about science and whether these beliefs differed from their peers who did not participate in the program, and (b) to examine a case study of one Studio STEM implementation to investigate elements of the curriculum that motivated students to engage in the program. Results: After completing two Studio STEM programs, participants' ratings of their values for science and science competence were higher than those of non-participants. In addition, the Studio STEM participants' motivational beliefs about science and intentions to pursue a college degree were more resilient over time than their peers. We also found that students could be motivated in a voluntary afterschool program (Studio STEM) in which they grappled with STEM concepts and activities, and could verbalize specific program elements that motivated them. Conclusions: Through this study, we found that students could be motivated in Studio STEM and that the experience had a positive impact on their perceptions about science as a field. Importantly, Studio STEM appeared to halt the decline in these students' motivational beliefs about science that typically occurs during the middle school years, indicating that afterschool programs can be one way to help students maintain their motivation in science. Studying the program features that the students found motivating may help educators to make connections between research and theory, and their classroom instruction to motivate their students.

The construction of asynchronous learning environments often involves the creation of self‐paced multimedia instructional episodes that provide the learner with control over the pacing of instruction (segmentation); however, does the amount of segmentation impact learning? This study explored the effects of the degree of segmentation on recall and application of new knowledge and the nature of learner dispositions toward segmentation. Undergraduate students (n = 212) were randomly assigned to engage in a 9‐minute multimedia tutorial (ie, instructionally designed video‐based presentation) addressing historical inquiry that was divided into 1, 7, 14 or 28 segments (degree of segmentation) where students had control over when each segment began via a “Continue” button. Students' dispositions toward the segmentation—helped learning, made learning easier, made learning confusing, was annoying or seemed appropriate—were also measured. Results indicated that increased segmentation facilitated recall and application; however, learners perceived a high degree of segmentation (28 segments) more negatively. Overall, these results indicate that increased segmentation within a multimedia instructional environment has a positive influence on recall and application, regardless of the learner's disposition toward the segmentation.

One purpose of this study was to determine whether patterns existed in pre–high school students’ motivation-related perceptions of their science classes. Another purpose was to examine the extent to which these patterns were related to their science identification, gender, grade level, class effort, and intentions to persist in science. We collected data from pre–high school students (Grades 5 through 7, 52.5% female, and 90.7% who self-identified as White) from 2 rural public schools in Southwest Virginia. Our analysis included data from 937 questionnaires that measured students’ perceptions of empowerment/autonomy, usefulness/utility value, expectancy for success, situational interest, and caring in science class. Using cluster analysis, we identified 5 clusters (i.e., “motivation profiles”) of students: (a) low motivation, (b) low usefulness and interest but high success and caring, (c) somewhat high motivation, (d) somewhat high motivation and high success and caring, and (e) high motivation. We tested the cluster stability by cluster analyzing subsamples by year of data collection and by grade level. Significant relationships existed between these motivation profiles and students’ science identification, gender, grade level, science class effort, and intentions to persist in science. These findings may support science educators in targeting students with similar motivation profiles rather than adhering to the difficult and often unrealistic task of catering to each student’s complex needs, individually.

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The primary purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which a 12-week afterschool science and engineering program affected middle school students' motivation to engage in science and engineering activities. We used current motivation research and theory as a conceptual framework to assess 14 students' motivation through questionnaires, structured interviews, and observations. Students reported that during the activities they perceived that they were empowered to make choices in how to complete things, the activities were useful to them, they could succeed in the activities, they enjoyed and were interested in the hands-on activities and some presentations, they felt cared for by the facilitators and received help when they were stuck or confused, and they put forth effort. Based on our examination of data across our three data sources, we identified motivating opportunities that were provided to students during the activities. These motivating opportunities can serve as examples to help both formal and informal science educators better connect motivation theory to practice so that they can create motivating opportunities for students. Furthermore, this study provides a methodological example of how students' motivation can be examined during the context of authentic science and engineering instruction.