XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE Assessing interest and confidence as components of student motivation in informal STEM learning Mark Blair Computer and Information Science Gannon University Erie, PA USA blair012@gannon.edu Stephen Frezza Computer and Information Science Gannon University Erie, PA USA frezza001@gannon.edu Abstract— This Work In Progress submission focuses on the deployment of assessment metrics of informal Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education conducted in various pre-college settings. Informal STEM Learning (ISL) is “learning [that] occurs across the lifespan and in places and spaces beyond schools or the school day” -NSF. NSF guidance recommends --among others-- the measure of the impact category of interest or engagement. The authors ask what is interest? What are the measures of its success? And how do we measure them? The authors theorize that interest as an emotional experience alone is not enough to compel learning behaviors and compose a composite model of interest and confidence. The authors suggest the psychological concepts of “motivation” and “self-efficacy” as a framework to devise measurements of interest/confidence. The authors propose an analytic model using QR codes to tie survey responses to a target behavior, “reciprocal engagement” as a new mechanism for verifying continued learning behavior. Initial data collection was interrupted by the Covid-19 lock down; however, the partial data body collected showed indications that self-reported data about learners’ experience in a lesson is more predictive of continued learning behavior than self- evaluation items such as “I understood the topic” and “I am familiar with the topic.” Keywords— STEM Education Assessment; Student Engagement; Confidence; Interest; Robotics Activity; Teacher Engagement; STEM Resources I. INTRODUCTION On a warm May afternoon Mark Blair stood in front of the bleachers on the Wilson Middle School Soccer field. High pitch screams periodically drowned out his words as racing drones zipped behind him at speeds in excess of one hundred miles an hour. The only thing louder than the drones are the excited shrieks of children watching a cool STEM technology demonstration. Afterwards a couple of students approached with excitement and asked, “How can we get some of these drones?” When they learned of the $500 price they exclaimed, “Man, screw all that mess! [edited].” Had we just damaged these students’ motivation toward STEM? While we had observed an increase in short-term interest, had we done so at the expense of a learner’s long-term motivation? Currently, few proclamations are as ubiquitous as “the world needs more engineers.” This assertion is not without its detractors [1]. On the current trajectory, STEM skills will have needed no more justification than did typing skills in the 1980s and 90s. Informal STEM Learning (ISL) activities aim to generate interest in STEM [2], but are we asking what is interest? Are we asking what is the result of generating interest in young learners or are we assuming its end? It is easy to state we need to increase interest in STEM learning, but “Interest” is conceivably only valuable if it results in positive behavioral or attitudinal changes. From a research perspective, this opens the question “Is interest a discrete entity or is it part of a more generalized psychological component?” The first challenge is to collect data anonymously while aligning a single respondent with multiple responses and behavioral interactions over time. The authors theorized that confidence also plays a critical antecedental role in learning behavior. If competence is the consequence of ISL, interest and confidence--or one’s belief about one’s competence--are antecedents of STEM learning. Our goal is to assess self- directed STEM learning behaviors in our students during and following the event(s). The research question is: H1: Confidence and interest in novice STEM learners combine to form a threshold for engagement in learning. II. INTEREST AND CONFIDENCE As identified above if interest and confidence are antecedents of STEM learning, these two antecedents must be discerned from each other. Additionally, each of these antecedents must be defined based on an empirically founded body of knowledge in order to build an effective research model. The problem is, interest does not have a discrete psychological definition. Psychological studies may use the term interest when affinity is the characteristic quality, or when attention/focus is the measured quantity, when curiosity is the characteristic quality, or how something affects someone is the measured quantity (as in: “in one’s best interest”). “Theories of interest split into two fields: (1) interest as a part of emotional experience, curiosity, and momentary motivation; and (2) interest as a part of personality, individual differences, and people's idiosyncratic hobbies, goals, and avocations” [3]. Paul Silivia describes this dichotomy as the difference between “interest” and “interests” [3]. In psychology the body of research regarding motivation best matches the desired ends of “interest” as it applies to ISL. Motivation is defined as a need, desire, [or aversion] that serves to energize behavior and to direct it toward a goal [4].