Examining student motivation: A case study in an authentic learning environment

The predominant and yet unfulfilled question among researchers is how to motivate students to persist in the STEM pipeline, complete STEM degrees, and contribute to the U.S. STEM workforce. Those students who fail to find personal relevance in STEM are not motivated to persist in STEM education beyond the basic requirements. This single, embedded case study of an authentic learning environment (Rule, 2006) -- the NASA SUITS software design challenge -- for evidence of student motivation to pursue STEM degrees and careers was analyzed using the ARCS-V model of motivation (Keller, 2010). Analysis of an embedded design case (Boling, 2010) and a case study of seven participants who completed the NASA SUITS Design Challenge from 2018-2022 provided evidence of motivation in the design and the participants’ experience of the challenge. The participants, all who have persisted in a STEM degree or career, were positively motivated through attention (interactions with NASA scientists, engineers, other specialists, and NASA facilities); relevance (connecting their prior experiences and interests); confidence (ownership of their project); satisfaction (the reward of completing authentic, industry-driven work); and volition (making decisions to persist in STEM). The success of using ALE and ARCS-V theories to embed a design case and a participant experience case in a study resulted in a replicable logic model.