Welcome to the SPARKS Lab, or the STEM Participation, Achievement, and Resilience through Knowledge and Skills Lab. In the SPARKS lab, we delve into the intricate interplay between instructional contexts, motivation, self-regulated learning, and other social-cognitive processes that shape student engagement and achievement, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
How can we leverage task values to boost student motivation and achievement in STEM domains?
How do students' expectancies for success and task values interact with other social-cognitive psychological processes (e.g., belonging, self-regulation), and how do those variables relate to motivation, engagement, and achievement?
How can professors and university officials better communicate course and university policies to positively impact students' expectancies for success, task values, and social-cognitive psychological processes (e.g., belonging, anticipated performance), motivation, engagement, and achievement? How do students from underrepresented groups (e.g., women, ethnic minority, or first generation) respond to this messaging?
In this project, we apply Situated Expectancy Value Theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020) in a microbiology course to enhance students' perceptions of its utility value (e.g., the usefulness of the subject for their future career), with the goal of increasing motivation and engagement in scientific learning.
In this study, we investigate how participating in a study group facilitates students’ sense of belonging in their physics and astronomy major and how that relates to motivation and persistence.
In this project, we explore how students from marginalized backgrounds interpret identity-threat and identity-safety information communicated in course policies and the motivational consequences of that information.
Funding
We acknowledge partial support from the following sources: the Engineering Information Foundation, the OSU Student Academic Success Research Grants program, the OSU Critical Difference for Women Research Grants program, and the Center for Emergent Materials: an NSF MRSEC at The Ohio State University under award number DMR-2011876.
Andrew H. Perry, PhD
Arianna Henning, PhD
Michelle Richard
Huy Nguyen
Kimiko Ching
Wonjoon Cha
Rylan Deer
Vanessa (Qin) Zhang
Serena Luo
Soo-Hong Yim
Christina Sullivan-Isaacs
Summer 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Arianna Henning, who graduated in the OSU commencement ceremony in August 2025. Arianna successfully defended her dissertation in April. Her study was titled, "Understanding intermediate STEM students' sense of belonging and attainment value: A mixed methods study." Arianna is now a research specialist in the Office of Curriculum and Scholarship at the OSU College of Medicine. We are very proud of Arianna!
Arianna was hooded by Dr. Yu at the graduation ceremony, marking the official conferral of the doctorate.
Here they are outside the Schottenstein Center after the ceremony, celebrating this important accomplishment in Arianna's academic journey.
Chaired by Dr. Yu, Arianna's dissertation committee also included Dr. Eric Anderman, Dr. Tzu-Jung Lin, and Dr. Minjung Kim. Dr. Sarah Wolff (Mechanical Engineering) served as the Graduate Faculty Representative.
Spring 2025
Arianna Henning and Wonjoon Cha were named as recipients of the 2024-2025 Graduate Associate Teaching Awards (GATA). The GATA is the highest teaching award at The Ohio State University, recognizing excellence in teaching at the graduate level. Congratulations!
Spring 2023
Andrew Perry was recognized at the 2023 Graduate School Awards Ceremony (bottom photo of linked page) for winning an Alumni Grant for Graduate Research and Scholarship. Andrew used the funds to support his dissertation research. Congratulations!
Spring 2025
Lab alumna Dr. Hyewon Lee (postdoctoral scholar at University of California Irvine) and Dr. Yu were interviewed for this news story published in Ohio State News.
The SPARKS lab was highlighted in this feature story published in the Inspire alumni magazine. Lab alumna Dr. Elise Allen (Assistant Professor at Northern Colorado University) and Dr. Yu were quoted in it.