The goal of the current research is to develop the M-PLANS (Motivation - Planning Lessons to Activate eNgagement in Science) toolkit and professional development model for supporting student motivation and engagement in middle school science classrooms. Changes in science standards, such as the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), increasingly call for students’ active engagement in lessons. However, teachers rarely receive targeted professional development (PD) with accompanying resources to help them support student motivation and engagement. Additionally, larger societal goals of creating science literacy and developing a highly trained STEM workforce further highlight the importance of supporting students’ science motivation. The MPLANS project involves collaboration of researchers and highly experienced middle school science teachers and district science coordinators in Michigan and Nevada to develop the M-PLANS toolkit and create a reasonable and sustainable PD model aimed at supporting student motivation and engagement in science.

As the postdoctoral research associate for the project, I designed and delivered the professional learning for middle school science teachers and collaborated with our co-design partners on developing the tools to help teachers provide motivationally supportive instruction.