Future Work • Improvements to this study • Larger sample sizes • Vary populations, especially to avoid selection biases • What is the mechanism for the improvement in self-efficacy? Is it sustained long-term? • Hypothesis: Focusing on future impacts enables students to envision themselves as active participants in a changing world. • Can we use our students’ desires to increase motivation and self-efficacy? • E.g. describe how the concepts they’re learning have impacted the world today and/or how these concepts can be leveraged to change the future Experimental Design 1. Pre-class questionnaire. The survey contained SMQII likert-type questions to assess motivation and open-ended questions to investigate student preferences about learning about scientific research. 2. Brief lecture. Students were introduced to historic examples of the impacts of research on society through machine learning as it relates to Netflix recommendations. The areas of scientific impact were then presented. This process served to: i. introduce the concept that scientific research has real-world consequences ii. demonstrate a framework for evaluating the broader impacts of research. 3. Think-pair-share. A problem situated discussion in either the influence of past research on the world today (intervention A) or how current research might impact the future (intervention B). 4. Post-class questionnaire. This survey utilized re-worded, but equivalent, SMQII questions to assess motivation to learn science, and open-ended questions to gauge changes in perceptions of science classes and scientific research. The pre- and post- class questionnaires contained unique codes that link answers to a particular student without revealing identifying information. Results Conclusions • Students indicate that they prefer to learn about current scientific research. • Open-ended responses can be categorized into specific desires. • Students who experienced intervention B, where discussion was grounded in the future impacts of current scientific research, reported an overall increase in self-efficacy, as measured using questions from the SMQII. • Wilcoxon signed-rank test between pre- and post-intervention scores for individuals is significant (p-value = 0.0003049) • This suggests that even quick, one-time interventions can produce measurable changes in self-efficacy The effects of temporal focus on students’ motivation to learn science James C. Schwabacher1 1Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 Motivation in Social Cognitive Theory The motivation to learn science is “an internal state that arouses, directs, and sustains science-learning behavior,” and is typically measured through the Science Motivation Questionnaire II (SMQII).1 Prior studies demonstrate that measures of student motivation to learn science are a fair measure of success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses.2,3 Positively influencing student motivation to learn science, thus, is a route to improving student learning outcomes in STEM courses. Psychologists have found that the temporal focus of a situation can drastically affect motivation (i.e. proximal vs distal goals),4 yet no investigations of temporal focus within science classrooms have been reported. References (1) Glynn, S. M.; Brickman, P.; Armstrong, N.; Taasoobshirazi, G. Science Motivation Questionnaire II: Validation with Science Majors and Nonscience Majors. J. Res. Sci. Teach. 2011, 48, 1159–1176. (2) Reardon, R. F.; Traverse, M. A.; Feakes, D. A.; Gibbs, K. A.; Rohde, R. E. Discovering the Determinants of Chemistry Course Perceptions in Undergraduate Students. J. Chem. Educ. 2010, 87, 643–646. (3) Smist, J. M. General Chemistry and Self-Efficacy. Natl. Meet. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 1–27. (4) Karniol, R.; Ross, M. THE MOTIVATIONAL IMPACT OF TEMPORAL FOCUS: Thinking About the Future and the Past. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 1996, 47, 593–620. Acknowledgements A special thanks to Dr. Lauren Woods for her patience and cont