Exploring the impact of career-relevant reading materials on students’ utility perceptions of chemistry

Abstract

Students in introductory chemistry pursue various programs of study (such as biomedical engineering) and may not see chemistry as central to their pursuits. The Informative Utility Value Intervention (IUVI) was developed to provide students with reading materials that explicitly link chemistry topics to their future career interests. By offering career-contextualized content, IUVI aims to help students recognize the practical applications of chemistry for their career interests. The current study qualitatively compares students' written reflections before and after engaging with the reading materials for perceptions of the utility of chemistry. Findings indicate that engagement with the IUVI reading materials reinforced, refined, or expanded students' perceptions of chemistry's utility, depending on how well the provided materials resonated with their career interests. Students’ prior conceptions and content alignment of the reading materials played a central role in shaping students’ perceptions of utility value of chemistry. These findings emphasize the importance of offering students greater autonomy to support the development of utility value of chemistry.

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Introduction

Introductory chemistry serves as a gateway course for undergraduate degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). It is one of the first science courses taken by students pursuing careers in science, medicine, and engineering. A report by the National Science Board (2019) in the United States highlights STEM graduates are increasingly sought after in the workforce, as careers in these fields offer intellectually engaging roles that drive innovation and tackle urgent societal challenges. While such prospects initially draw many students to STEM disciplines, introductory courses can often feel disconnected from the real-world goals and motivation that led students to pursue these paths (Cech, 2014). Imagine a student on the pre-medical track sitting in a chemistry classroom, staring at a complex equation presented in class, wondering, Why does this matter? How does this connect to what I want to do? For many students, chemistry feels like an abstract collection of formulas and rules; something they must memorize to pass a course rather than a subject that holds relevance to their future careers. Research has shown students label chemistry teaching as unpopular or irrelevant (Pak, 1997; Cetto et al., 2000; Krajcik et al., 2001; Osborne and Collins, 2001).

This raises an important question: how could chemistry be made relevant to students with different career interests? One promising strategy is to provide students with career-relevant subject reading materials. Research suggests that when students perceive chemistry as relevant to their future careers, they are more likely to develop a sense of appreciation for its broader applications (Hulleman and Harackiewicz, 2009; Harackiewicz et al., 2016). The current work examines how career-relevant reading materials can foster perceptions of utility value of chemistry.

Utility value interventions

Utility value interventions (UVIs) help students explore and reflect on the personal relevance and usefulness of course content through curriculum-integrated writing assignments. Conventional UVIs prompt students to write a reflection on how the topics they are learning in class might be relevant to their long-term plans, career plans or daily life. In post-secondary chemistry settings, UVIs have been associated with increases in student performance (Wang et al., 2021; Wang and Lewis, 2022; Harackiewicz et al., 2023), student attitude (Wang et al., 2021; Beymer and Rosenzweig, 2025) and persistence in STEM (Asher et al., 2023). UVI studies have measured student attitudes via quantitative measures (Harackiewicz et al., 2008; Hulleman and Harackiewicz, 2009; Hulleman et al., 2017; Rosenzweig et al., 2020; Beymer and Rosenzweig, 2025).

The design of conventional UVIs do not offer students opportunities to engage with information on the applications of course material. That is, while students speculate or brainstorm how a chemistry topic could be relevant to their daily life or career plans, they do not gain explicit information on how chemistry could be relevant nor an opportunity to discern whether this information describes an application of a chemistry topic in line with their personal career goals. Just as structured support is critical for students to build cognitive understanding when learning new content (Wood et al., 1976; Rosenshine and Meister, 1992; Chi et al., 2008), we believe providing tangible examples of application of chemistry can similarly support the development of positive perceptions of chemistry, including its utility. The Informative Utility Value Intervention (IUVI) was designed to provide students with career-relevant reading materials, situated within a conventional UVI, to help build their perceptions of utility value (Young et al., 2024). Through qualitative analysis of students’ written reflections, this study investigates how these reading materials support students’ perceptions of chemistry's utility in their career interests. Such an approach can inform broader efforts to promote utility value perceptions in various subjects by utilizing readings and resources that are specifically curated to connect course content with students’ career interests.

Informative utility value intervention

In the United States curriculum, general chemistry is often the first post-secondary chemistry course and is meant to provide a foundation on a wide set of chemistry topics for students majoring in both foundational sciences (e.g. physics, chemistry) or applied sciences (e.g. biomedical sciences, engineering). Therefore, students within a general chemistry classroom have diverse career interests. At the research setting, a slight majority of students in this course are interested in careers in Medicine (about 56%) while the remaining students have career interests in Engineering (about 17%), Health Sciences (about 8%), Biological Sciences (about 7%), Pharmaceutical Sciences (about 5%), Chemistry (about 2%), and about 5% who are either unsure or have other career interests.

The use of UVIs in such settings can promote students to realize the utility of chemistry as they link it to their future goals. Conventional UVIs rely on students developing connections between what is learned and their career plans, while students may struggle to independently develop relations between abstract chemistry topics and various career interests. To address this concern, IUVI was developed to enhance conventional UVIs by providing students with concrete examples of applications of chemistry topics to their career interest while retaining students’ written reflections. The IUVI is a series of interactive assignments designed to enhance students’ perceptions of utility of chemistry by providing them with web-based articles aligned with their prospective career interests (Young et al., 2024). Each assignment is structured into four parts as described below.

Part 1: Students select a potential career interest from a predefined list. This list was generated from a survey of general chemistry students in previous semesters. The list includes general categories with examples, such as “Medicine (Doctor, Nurse, PA, etc.),” along with options for “other” or “unsure.” Next, students choose a recently taught chemistry topic from a provided list that they perceive as relevant to their career interests.

Part 2: Students respond to the prompt: “Explain how the topic you chose may be useful to your future career plans?” This serves as a baseline for students to think about the utility value of their selected topic in relation to their career interest. This prompt requires a response of at least 500 characters.

Part 3: Students are presented with hyperlinks to articles that connect their selected career interest and chemistry topic. Students are given a choice of three articles, or the system randomly assigns an article from the three options. These articles, approximately 600 to 700 words in length, are curated to ensure relevance to the chemistry topic and career combination. The articles are often sourced from ScienceDaily, a website which summarizes recent scientific discoveries for public dissemination, or similar sites. For instance, a student who selects the career field “Medicine” and the topic “Calculations to solve for diluted solutions” will receive “Emergency Physicians Urge Parents to Avoid Diluting Baby Formula” (American College of Physicians, 2022) and a student who selects the career field “Engineering” and the topic “Solubility and Precipitates” will receive “New solvent-based recycling process could cut down on millions of tons of plastic waste” (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2020). Students read the article and answer three follow-up questions designed to reinforce utility perceptions: (1) “What did you learn from reading this article?” (2) “How does this article relate to [students’ selected chemistry topic]?” (3) “Describe a possible connection between what you learned in this article and your future plans [in students’ field of interest or leave blank for students who select Unsure or Other]. Feel free to be creative and consider even indirect applications.” The first two prompts require responses of at least 500 characters, while the third requires 750 characters.

Part 4: Students rate the relevance of the article to their field and chosen topic, primarily to inform future revisions of the assignments.

A detailed description of the IUVI assignment has been published previously (Young et al., 2024). An excel database of links to the articles used to demonstrate the utility of various chemistry topics to different career fields is included as a SI.

Rationale and research question

Yeager and Walton (2011) in their comprehensive review of socio-psychological interventions, highlighted the critical role of active engagement in fostering the internalization of utility value beliefs among students. Active engagement, they argued, enables students to see the relevance of academic content to their personal and professional goals, thereby enhancing motivation and learning outcomes. Building on this idea, the IUVI assignments were purposefully designed to serve as scaffolds that support students in developing and internalizing perceptions of the utility of chemistry topics. By providing structured opportunities for students to connect academic content to their future careers, the IUVI assignments aim to bridge the gap between abstract chemistry topics and practical applications in different career fields.

A qualitative analysis of student reflections from an IUVI assignment provides a valuable opportunity to describe the variations in how reading career-relevant materials can promote utility value of chemistry. This study seeks to uncover patterns in students’ written reflections that can reveal how they interpret career-relevant reading materials. Ultimately, the findings can inform future instructional design by identifying how students respond to structured opportunities to reflect on the personal relevance of course content (Durik et al., 2015; Rosenzweig et al., 2019). The present study was guided by the following research question:

What patterns emerge in comparing students’ written responses from before and after engaging with the IUVI reading article, and how do these patterns illustrate the ways students connect chemistry content to their career interests?

Theoretical framework

The present study is guided by expectancy-value theory (EVT) (Eccles and Wigfield, 1995; Wigfield and Eccles, 2000; Eccles, 2005). EVT posits that two key beliefs: expectancy for success (that is, “Can I do this?’) and subjective task value (that is, “Do I want to do this?”) play a central role in shaping individuals’ achievement-related behaviors and decisions. Together, students’ expectancy beliefs and task-values predict motivation and subsequently learning related outcomes (Hulleman et al., 2008; Bieg et al., 2013). Expectancy for success refers to an individual's belief about how well they will perform on an upcoming task. Task value encompasses four distinct components: attainment value, intrinsic value, cost, and utility value. This study focuses on utility value and intrinsic value, for a detailed discussion of the other components see the following references (Wigfield and Eccles, 1992; Flake et al., 2015).

Utility value is defined as the perceived usefulness or relevance of a task in relation to an individual's immediate or future goals. For example, a student values learning dilutions because it will help them administer correct medicine dosages to patients as a future nurse. In this study, we conceptualize students’ utility perceptions, that is, how students describe the relevance of chemistry topics to their intended careers as direct reflections of their task utility value. When students perceive a chemistry topic as instrumental to their future career roles, they are expressing a form of utility value as outlined in EVT. Importantly, task utility value is both situationally influenced and developmentally dynamic. Students may initially struggle to recognize how abstract content (e.g., chemical equations, thermodynamic principles) connects to real-world contexts. However, EVT posits that instructional interventions that emphasize relevance can support the development of stronger utility value perceptions (Wigfield and Eccles, 2000; Durik et al., 2015). The IUVI described and employed in this study was designed with this principle in mind. By prompting students to reflect on the relevance of chemistry topics to their specific career paths through curated article readings, the intervention aimed to promote their task utility value.

Intrinsic value is defined as engagement driven by curiosity or enjoyment (Eccles, 2005) and is synonymous with interest. Intrinsic value differs from utility value in that intrinsic value is directly related to an object, whereas utility value is focused on the relation of the object to other objects or events (Eccles, 2005). For instance, a student who values learning about intermolecular forces to be a physician demonstrates a utility value in the task of learning about intermolecular forces; in contrast a student who values learning about the career field of physician out of only curiosity demonstrates intrinsic value in the career of physicians. The IUVI is designed to identify students’ career interests and use this information to direct students to reading materials aligned with that career interest. The goal of the IUVI is to develop students’ perceptions of the utility of chemistry content particular to the student's career interest. As will be shown in the results, students’ responses to the IUVI prompts invoke descriptions of their career interests, including students further specifying or broadening their career interests. Students’ descriptions of their career interests become an important contextual feature in understanding the role of IUVI in shaping students’ utility value perceptions.

Methods

Ethical considerations

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (Study #002811) where the data was collected. The IUVI was a course assignment at the research setting, but data analysis was conducted only on a subset of students who provided written consent (n = 395) to their responses being used within a research study.

Data collection

Data were collected during the Fall 2023 semester from first-semester general chemistry students at a research-intensive university in the southeastern United States. The IUVI was administered in three general chemistry classes each with a different instructor (n = 688) as a series of three assignments spaced across the semester. Each assignment was identical in structure but differed in the list of chemistry topics students chose from and therefore, the articles they were directed to. The list of chemistry topics in each assignment (see Table 1) aligned with topics that were covered on the most recent exam in the course.

Table 1 Assignment-wise list of chemistry topics utilized in IUVI

Assignment 1	Prediction of covalent versus ionic bonds; calculations to solve for diluted solutions; solubility and precipitates; changes among kinetic energy, potential energy, and chemical energy; enthalpy change of a chemical reaction; and specific heat capacity
Assignment 2	Trends in the periodic table; bond energies to estimate the enthalpy of a reaction; and structure of ionic compounds and the lattice energy
Assignment 3	Polarity; ideal gas law; and models of molecular bonding

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Students received each IUVI assignment as a replacement for a regular homework assignment. That is, students received homework points for completing the IUVI assignments. Students were given one week to complete the IUVI assignment, the same time frame as the regular homework assignment. Unlike the regular homework assignments where students had two attempts, students were allowed only one attempt on the IUVI. Student responses to the IUVI were graded based on complete and relevant answers to the prompts in parts two and three of the assignment. Throughout the term students are given fourteen homework assignments that combined contribute to 10% of their overall grade. These assignments are conceptualized as formative assessments, with a point structure that students can miss approximately one quarter of the available points and still receive full credit for completing this component of the course.

Data analysis

For the current study, analysis focused on students who identified “Medicine”, “Engineering” or “Chemistry” as the field most relevant to their future career interests (representing approximately 75% of total students). From this subset, the three articles most frequently selected by these students during the three assignments of the intervention were identified and designated for further examination. A total of 120 student responses were analyzed, each consisting of a paired response to a baseline prompt and a corresponding follow-up prompt related to a single IUVI assignment. The baseline (part 2) prompt was “Explain how the topic you chose may be useful to your future career plans,” and the follow-up (part 3) prompt was: “Describe a possible connection between what you learned in this article and your future plans in [Medicine/Engineering/Chemistry]. Feel free to be creative and consider even indirect applications.” Importantly, each student's IUVI submission was treated as a single unit of analysis; the study did not examine changes in responses across multiple IUVI assignments over time.

The data analysis process followed a systematic approach to explore changes in how students connected a selected chemistry topic to their future careers in medicine, engineering or chemistry before and after engaging with a career-relevant article. This sequential method enabled a detailed characterization of how their perceptions of the topic's relevance, applicability, and alignment with their career interests shifted after reading the article. To effectively capture and classify these shifts, the first author developed an initial version of a codebook by reading a subset of 20 response pairs that reflected a variety of response patterns. That is, the first author read students’ baseline responses and then their responses after engaging with the article to create a list of codes. These codes reflected the differences in student responses to the baseline and follow-up prompts, focusing on key aspects such as:

1. Relevance: Relevance reflects the degree to which students perceive the chemistry topic as instrumental to their career interests, a direct expression of utility value.

2. Agentic Perspective: Agentic perspective captures whether students describe themselves as active future users of the chemistry content. This language signals that students not only understand a topic's usefulness but also see themselves applying it in career contexts.

3. Certainty: The degree of confidence students expressed about the relevance of the topic to their career.

The first and second authors collaboratively reviewed the codebook, refining the descriptions of several codes to ensure alignment with the data and the study's objectives. The coding process involved multiple rounds of consensus coding to iteratively develop the codebook. After each round, the authors met to discuss discrepancies in coding, resolve disagreements, and refine the codebook for greater clarity and consistency. The final codebook is summarized in Table 2 (the full version is included in the Appendix). The final codebook was applied to the complete set of responses. After finalizing the coding of all student responses using the refined codebook, the authors conducted a second-level analysis to synthesize individual codes into broader, interpretive themes. This process involved identifying relationships among codes that reflected shared patterns of meaning across students’ reflections. For this analysis, the first author wrote detailed memos for each code to summarize its defining features and to understand its significance. These memos included representative examples from student responses and the range of interpretations within each code. This process supported the identification of patterns across codes, which were then grouped into broader themes (presented in the Results section) based on shared characteristics and their alignment with the theoretical framework. For instance, Theme 4 in the results “Diminished or Persistent Lack of Career-linked Utility Perceptions” was interpreted through the combination of two specific codes: “Constancy of Uncertainty in Relevance” and “Decrease in Topic Relevance”. These codes were combined since both captured student responses that reflected uncertainty about the usefulness of a chemistry topic to their career interests after engaging with the IUVI assignment.

Table 2 Shortened version of the codebook

Code	Description of code
Personal anecdote	Students’ follow-up response includes an example from their life or someone they know as the subject.
Hypothetical anecdote	Students’ follow-up response includes a futuristic imaginary anecdote with themselves as the subject.
Utility for research	Students’ follow-up response mentions how a concept or knowledge can be used in future research.
Attainment-utility	Baseline response lists attainment value; follow-up response lists utility value related to their career.
Constancy of anecdotes	Student lists a personal/hypothetical anecdote in both baseline and follow-up responses.
Constancy of uncertainty	Student lists uncertainty of relevance in both baseline and follow-up responses.
Decrease in topic relevance	Follow-up response mentions the topic is not applicable/useful to their future career.
Broadening career choice	Student discusses expanding their career choice after reading the article.
Streamlining career choice	Student discusses narrowing down their career choice after reading the article.

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Results

To explore the research question, students' baseline and follow-up responses were analyzed. Through this analysis, four key themes emerged, summarizing the variation in students’ responses. These themes are presented in Table 3 and detailed in the following text.

Table 3 Themes generated by combining codes

Theme	Summary	Codes combined
Refined career-linked utility perceptions	Students in this theme demonstrated a shift from general associations to more specific and personalized connections between chemistry content and their career interests. Their responses reflected increased clarity and confidence in the utility value of the topic, as they envisioned concrete ways chemistry would support their future roles.	• Personal anecdote
		• Hypothetical anecdote
		• Utility for research
		Attainment-utility
Maintained career-linked utility perceptions	Students in this group maintained a stable perception of chemistry's utility across both responses. They reaffirmed prior beliefs about the topic's usefulness for their career interests.	• Constancy of anecdotes
Expanded perceptions of career-linked utility perceptions	Students used the IUVI reading material to either refine or broaden their career interests, often discovering new ways chemistry could be applied in different career contexts. These shifts reflected a reappraisal of utility value, where students reassigned relevance based on expanded or redirected career interests.	• Broadening career choice
		• Streamlining career choice
Diminished or persistent lack of career-linked utility perceptions	Students in this theme struggled to identify chemistry's relevance to their career interests, with some expressing ongoing or increased uncertainty after engaging with the assignment. Their responses highlighted a lack or weakening of utility value, suggesting that the content did not resonate with their career interests.	• Constancy of uncertainty in relevance
		• Decrease in topic relevance

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Theme 1: Refined career-linked utility perceptions

About half of students (46%, n = 55) moved from abstract or generalized descriptions of chemistry concepts prior to reading the article to more personalized, career-oriented connections after reading the article. This theme illustrates how students situated chemistry knowledge within the context of their future career interests in the field of medicine, engineering or chemistry after engaging with the article in the assignment. By providing an opportunity for deeper engagement, the articles facilitated a shift in students’ perspectives, helping them to see the relevance of various chemistry topics for their career interests. Ultimately, this theme highlights responses in which engagement with the IUVI assignments equipped the students with relevant information to envision chemistry as part of their future careers more concretely and meaningfully. The key pathways through which students personalized their connections are detailed below.

Some students personalized their connections between chemistry content and career plans through the process of positioning themselves as active agents in their prospective future careers. Before reading the articles, students often described chemistry topics in abstract or generalized terms, focusing on the theoretical relevance of the topics to their career interests. After engaging with the assigned articles, these students begin to frame their reflections by envisioning themselves in professional roles (such as an Anesthesiologist, Plastic surgeon, Chemical Engineer, etc.), applying the knowledge they have gained from the article. For instance, a student's baseline response to how “Calculations to solve for diluted solutions” may be useful to their career in Medicine was:

This information could apply to future career when prescribing medicine. It is important to prescribe the correct amount of medicine for each patient and knowing the correct dilution will be very important in this. It is also important for creating liquid medicine. Oftentimes, liquid medicine comes in a concentrated stock that must be diluted. This allows to be able to use the same concentrated stock for patients with different body masses. Therefore, perfecting dilution formulas is going to be key.

Before reading the article, the student makes a connection about diluting a liquid medicine so that a patient receives the right amount of dosage. The student derives a practical application of dilutions in the field of medicine from their lecture and laboratory knowledge. After reading the article “Emergency Physicians Urge Parents to Avoid Diluting Baby Formula” (2022), the student mentioned:

This article actually relates to both of my future medicine ideas. I have not yet decided what part of medicine I would like to focus on; however, my two main options right now are plastic surgery and obstetrics. In plastic surgery dilution is important when diluting something like botox. Botox is often diluted to reduce its side effects. Every patient is going to be different to being able to complete each dilution quickly and correctly is important. I am also considering going into obstetrics which is where this article relates even more. I did not know that diluting baby formula too much could causes these kinds of dangers. I would make sure I prepare the formula bottles correctly and advise my patients to do the same.

After reading the article, the student builds a connection directly to the specific fields they are considering within medicine (plastic surgery and obstetrics) rather that a general connection to the medicine field. The article helped the student to position themselves into the future as they mention “…I would make sure I prepare…”. In the baseline response, while the student makes a connection of the topic to the field, they are detached from the profession. However, after reading the article, the student's response is associated with their future goal as the student begins to use more “I” language and the response indicates this student wants to pursue this career and is interested in how chemistry and this article will help them do so.

Students’ connections to chemistry topics became more personalized after engaging with the article through the integration of personal life events or stories. Before engaging with the article, students often described chemistry topics in general terms, without linking them to personal experiences. After reading the article, students personalized their responses by incorporating personal stories and experiences such as internships, volunteer work, or personal encounters. For example, a student in their baseline response linking “Changes among kinetic energy, potential energy, and chemical energy” to their prospective career in Engineering mentioned:

The topic I chose could be useful in the future because I would need to calculate different forces [sic: energies] including kinetic energy and potential energy. It is important when it comes to building things. I want to go more towards the transportation field so when it comes to building roads it's really important to know the changes among kinetic energy and potential energy to have a successful design. When it comes to designing, one would need to know certain aspects of the design so when cars or any automotive would drive on it. It would stay together.

The student tries to connect the topic by linking it to the design of roads. After reading the article “Crash safety: New traffic lights absorb kinetic energy” (University of South Australia, 2021), the student wrote:

This connects to my field in engineering because it's something that transportation engineers work with. When it comes to the signal pole that can absorb kinetic energy, I'm positive that civil engineers are involved on the design of the new signal pole. When it comes to this type of engineering it's not just signal poles that work with kinetic energy. Knowing the different forces [sic: energies] can help understand that basics of designing things and ensuring that its works and is safe for public use. During my internship at an engineering firm, I was able to design a couple traffic lights and the way they would operate in a specific situation. So, reading about these new designs make me curious on how they were able to design such a thing.

The student strengthened their connection between the chemistry topic and their future career in engineering by integrating personal experience with professional applications. They highlighted the relevance of kinetic energy in transportation engineering, specifically in the design of signal poles, and acknowledged the broader role of energy concepts in engineering. Drawing from their internship experience, where they worked on traffic light design, the student expressed curiosity about the development of new signal pole technology. This response demonstrates a shift toward a more career-focused perspective, as the student positioned themselves within their future role and viewed the role of chemistry as part of it.

Before engaging with the article, some students viewed the relevance of chemistry topics primarily in terms of achieving short-term academic goals, such as completing coursework or preparing for exams such as an entrance exam to medical school known as the MCAT. Their focus was on how these topics could help them succeed academically, without a clear connection to their long-term career interests. Engagement with the article in the assignments allowed these students to shift their perspective, recognizing the practical utility of the topics in their future careers. Students began to view chemistry concepts as essential tools for solving real-world challenges in their professional roles. They emphasized how this knowledge could be directly applied to tasks and responsibilities in their future medical careers. For instance, one student in the baseline response said:

This is important on the MCAT which is very necessary to becoming a doctor and chemistry topics are a section on the Mcat. The Mcat will ask bond energy questions. Other than that, I don't believe it will be very relevant unless I decide to do research and look more into the chemical aspects of medicine. The Mcat is basically the biggest application where bond energy will come up. It is negative [sic: needed] to know to get in, not really to stay in. Other topics are also necessary. Basically all of Chem 1 and 2 is necessary for the MCAT.

The student mentioned the applicability and relevance of the topic “Bond energies to estimate the enthalpy of a reaction” on the medical entrance exam. Outside the medical entrance exam, it was challenging for the student to find the applicability of the topic to their prospective career in medicine. After reading the article “Cellular ‘glue’ to regenerate tissues, heal wounds, regrow nerves” (University of California-San Francisco, 2022), the student stated:

I want this [cellular glue] to become a thing because I believe this is the next big leap of medicine. For too long, there has been no hope to cure these fears like dementia and Parkinson's because they just persist. This article brings hope of a way of reversing time and making a new body that has gotten rid of the things plaguing it. I would be very interested in doing research on this and learning more about it and potentially contributing more to this field in the future. I wish this was around for my grandpas. This could save so many lives and make so many lives better. The process of getting old doesn’t have to be so bad anymore.

The student's perspective on the relevance of the topic shifted after reading the article. Engagement with the article allowed the student to view the application of the topic in curing diseases like dementia and Parkinson's. Through the article, the student recognized the distant utility of the topic in the field of medicine and becoming an active contributor to the field of medicine.

Overall, the first theme describes how the IUVI assignments supported a set of students to realize chemistry as a foundational component of their professional career interests. For these students, the web-based articles potentially serve as a reference point to support the process of constructing their perceptions of utility. Ultimately, these students appeared to internalize the relevance of the content as they actively engage with information that directly relates to their career interests.

Theme 2: Maintained career-linked utility perceptions

About 28% (n = 34) of students demonstrated personalized connections both before and after engaging with the article. In other words, these students maintained the initial connection between the chemistry topic and their career interests. Before reading the article, these students anchored their reflections in personal anecdotes, such as past experiences or ongoing career interests, or hypothetical scenarios that connected chemistry concepts to their career interests. For some, engagement with the article was marked by reiterations of how chemistry fit into their envisioned roles. Others consistently used relatable examples to illustrate how the content aligned with their career interests post engagement with the article.

For example, one student aspiring to become a physician linked the topic of “Calculations to solve for diluted solutions” to their career, stating:

I think knowing and understanding chemistry is very important to my career as a physician. Knowing how to calculate solutions of chemicals can be useful when calculating the dosage of medicine that my patient needs. Understanding chemical reactions can also allow me to predict how certain medications can affect my patient's body, especially if they are taking other medications. In addition, my dream specialty is dermatology, which I feel one needs lots of chemistry knowledge for, because many chemicals can react with the skin in different ways.

In this response, the student positioned themselves as a future physician through the use of personal pronouns, such as “my patient” and “my patient's body.” The connection they drew between chemistry and their career was framed in practical and clinical terms, emphasizing tasks like dosage calculation, medication interactions, and dermatological applications of chemistry knowledge.

After engaging with the article “Emergency Physicians Urge Parents to Avoid Diluting Baby Formula” (2022), the student maintained their anecdotal connection but enriched their response with insights gained from the reading the article. They elaborated:

As seen in the article, physicians play a big part in determining what is a healthy amount of a nutrient to consume. This can vary from patient to patient depending on age, health conditions, lifestyle, etc. Therefore, as a physician, I think understanding solutions and dilutions is very important to my career because it can potentially mean life or death for a patient. No matter the specialty, chemistry, especially chemical balances, is critical to medicine and patient care. Treatments in medicine almost always involve or use chemicals, making it very necessary that physicians understand how they work. This article is a great example of how physicians are involved with chemicals since they warned about how dilutions can be dangerous for infant safety.

In both the baseline and follow-up responses, the student consistently viewed themselves as a future physician, anchoring their reflections within the context of their anticipated career. While the baseline response focuses on the general importance of understanding dilutions for patient care, the follow-up response builds on this by incorporating specific knowledge from the article, such as the impact of dilutions on infant safety. This progression shows a continuity in the student's positioning in a future career, as they continue to situate themselves in their future role, evident in their use of phrases like “…as a physician, I think…”.

Another student aspiring to become a chemistry teacher stated the relevance of “Prediction of covalent versus ionic bonds” to their prospective profession as:

When I become a chemistry teacher, I will have to know a tremendous amount of information about many aspects of chemistry. I feel that the topic of prediction of covalent versus ionic bonds will be useful to my future career plans as a chemistry teacher. It will important when I will be discussing this element of chemistry to a bunch of students. I will give examples of materials around us like salt and diamond to describe which have an ionic bond and which have covalent bonds. A covalent bond is when electrons are shared between atoms and ionic bond is when a strong electrostatic force of attraction between cations and anions in an ionic compound.

Before engaging with the article, the student positioned themselves in their future role as a chemistry teacher as they mentioned they will need to know this information to teach their students. They further elaborated their plan to integrate examples to teach this topic.

After engaging with the article “Taking an X-ray of an atomic bond” (Drexel University, 2019), the student supplemented information from the article and reaffirmed the role of the topic in their future role as they mentioned:

In this article, it provided helpful information to me as it displayed new ways to experiment bonds with their electrons. To learn that there are always new advancements in chemistry, it makes me confident that it will suit my career and put me in the right steps. I feel that building on the topic on predicting covalent bonds versus ionic bonds adds on to my knowledge that I can pass onto future students of mine in a classroom. The discussion of X-rays to bonds is very interesting because they used that in the article to determine the element's electron contributions. This is important because there are different parts of things that can be connected to other things. This is another connection I found in the article with X-rays with the prediction of covalent bonds versus ionic bonds.

The student maintained their initial connection between chemistry and their future career interest, reaffirming their perception of the subject's relevance. They expressed confidence that ongoing advancements in chemistry would support their professional path and highlighted applying this knowledge in a teaching role. While their baseline response focused on the fundamental definition and importance of the topic for teaching, their follow-up response expanded on this by incorporating insights from the article about advancements in chemistry and experimental methods for studying bonds. They expressed confidence in chemistry's continued relevance to their career and acknowledged the importance of staying updated on new discoveries.

Overall, theme 2 highlights cases where IUVI assignments supported students in maintaining a consistent connection to the relevance of chemistry concepts in their envisioned future careers. IUVI served as a reflective exercise that helped them reaffirm their understanding of how chemistry concepts aligned with their career interests. These students often utilized the information provided in the articles to articulate and solidify their pre-existing perspectives. The reflective process primarily functioned to validate their existing ideas.

Theme 3: Expanded perceptions of career-linked utility perceptions

About 15% (n = 18) of students mentioned a shift in their career interests after engaging with the assigned article. This theme highlights the dual nature of these shifts, with some students narrowing their career focus to more specific paths and others expanding their perspective to consider additional possibilities or alternate interests. Overall, this theme demonstrates how IUVI assignments offered students information to discover new ways chemistry could be applied in different career contexts. These shifts reflected a reappraisal of utility value, where students reassigned relevance based on expanded or redirected career interests.

For some students, engagement with the article helped clarify and narrow down their choices by providing a more focused vision into how specific chemistry concepts relate to their career interests. These students often transitioned from a broad or undefined career interest to considering a more specialized career interest. The article served as a catalyst, deepening their understanding of how particular topics in chemistry could be directly applied in their chosen field. For example, one student expressed a baseline, broad interest in the field of engineering as they stated, “Although I am not exactly sure what I want to do for work when I am older, I do know that the engineering field has always sparked my interest.” When prompted to link the topic of “Changes among kinetic energy, potential energy, and chemical energy” to their future career, they stated:

As technology now a days is always improving, it is important that engineers understand the basic energy concepts so that they can create things effectively. Examples of objects that were created by engineers that use kinetic energy would be aircraft, rockets, cars and bikes. Without knowledge of kinetic energy these things would not have been able to be created. Engineers need to know how to develop kinetic formulas for calculating energy to be able to design objects that involve motion. Engineers also deal with potential energy when they are creating things that have to do with height and gravity. Objects that are created by engineers that deal with potential energy could be bridges and rollercoasters. Another energy that engineers deal with is chemical energy, this energy deals with atoms and molecules contained in chemical compounds. Chemical energy gives power to supply electrical power which can be useful for electrical engineering.

This student's baseline response highlights that the student finds the topic relevant to the field of engineering in general. However, their follow-up response after reading the article “Crash safety: New traffic lights absorb kinetic energy” (University of South Australia, 2021) highlighted a desire to work in the field of biomedical engineering specifically as the student stated:

A connection between the article that I just read and my intended major and field of study is that what I am looking into studying do have to do with kinetic energy, potential energy and chemical energy. The people from the University of Australia are testing and creating something that can be useful for the improvement in human lives. It got me interested in biomedical engineering by highlighting how energy storage and transfer play a crucial role in developing more efficient and effective healthcare technologies. Just as researchers at the University of Australia are developing energy-storing traffic lights to improve safety, biomedical engineers apply similar energy concepts to create advanced prosthetics, heart monitors, and other life-saving medical devices.

After reading the article, the students’ reflection suggested a streamlining in their broad career interest from engineering to a more specific interest in biomedical engineering. While initially exploring broader energy-related concepts, the article helped them recognize the role of energy storage and transfer in developing medical technologies. They drew parallels between the research on energy-storing traffic lights and biomedical applications, such as prosthetics and heart monitors.

Conversely, for other students, engaging with the article led to expanded career interests, prompting them to explore new opportunities or consider previously uncharted applications of chemistry within their field. In the follow-up responses, these students expressed a newfound interest in areas that had not been part of their original interest. For instance, one student who initially aimed to become a surgeon reflected on the innovative technology described in the article “Medical, magnetic millirobots offer hope for less-invasive surgeries” (University of Houston, 2015) and remarked,

Looking into the future of my career and the technology analyzed with it I can only argue in favor of my wanting to do research. In the future, even though neurology is an important aspect of my future, I most definitely want to embark in a research aspect of it for at least some part of my life. This is because I want to build curiosity and innovate technology that will improve human quality. For example, in regard to the article the milirobots are a unique way to see the brain and how to operate it. Although we have vast knowledge of the organ system, its gaps are even bigger and more numerous. That is why research helping society understand a complex organ of our body would make me happy and proud. Another huge aspect of it would be the epidemic of mental disorders that these generations are seeing. Having a better understanding of the effect these energy impulses have on the brain can affect the way we treat such diseases.

This reflection highlights how the article not only reinforced the student's existing interest in neurology but also inspired them to consider a research-oriented path that emphasizes innovation and technological advancement. The student's expanded view included aspirations to contribute to the development of less-invasive surgical techniques and to address broader issues like mental health disorders through scientific exploration.

In summary, Theme 3 captures how IUVI served as a reflective tool for some students to reassess their career interests, resulting in either a narrowing or expansion of these interests. The assignment helped students refine or reframe their understanding of which fields align best with the chemistry content they encountered. This realignment demonstrates how task utility value can shift in response to new contextual information, supporting evolving judgments about the subject's relevance to future careers.

Theme 4: Diminished or persistent lack of career-linked utility perceptions

About 11% (n = 13) of students’ reflections demonstrated either continued uncertainty about the applicability of chemistry topics to their future careers or a decline in perceived relevance after engaging with the assignment. For some, the assignment did not resolve their initial reservations, as their reflections remained marked by ambiguity or a lack of clarity about how the topic connected to their career interests. Others expressed greater uncertainty or explicitly noted that the topic felt less relevant to their career interests after engaging with the article.

Some students expressed uncertainty about the relevance of a chemistry topic to their future career in medicine, both before and after engaging with the article. One example is a student who selected the topic of “Bond energies to estimate the enthalpy of a reaction” to their career and attempted to link it to their prospective career in forensic anthropologist. In their baseline response, the student noted:

I want to go into forensic anthropology, which is the study of human remains and determining how someone died. Anthropology is a social science which does not really rely on chemistry, which is a natural science, as much, so it is hard to think of an application of chemistry to the subfield. It may be good for toxicology reports and determining what chemicals were used to harm someone, but I do not know about how the topics above would relate. I know chemistry is used often in medicine, but I don’t know how it's used, we don’t really discuss that.

In this response, the student struggles to connect the concept of bond energies to their potential future as a forensic anthropologist, mentioning that chemistry is useful in medicine overall. However, their statement, “but I do not know about how the topics above would relate…” and “…but I don’t know how it's used…” reflects uncertainty about the applicability of the topic (or more broadly, chemistry) to their chosen profession. After engaging with the article “Cellular ‘glue’ to regenerate tissues, heal wounds, regrow nerves” (University of California-San Francisco, 2022), the student maintained this uncertainty. In their follow-up response, they explained:

In connection with forensic anthropology, I’m not sure how often cellular regeneration would be used since it's not a very doctor-focused career path. There might be some ways it could help, like with identifying decomposed human remains, but I’m not certain. For example, using something like a cell glue for regeneration could potentially preserve cell bonds for DNA extraction from damaged tissues, or maybe even help with reconstructing damaged fingerprints for analysis. It sounds interesting, but I’m unsure how practical or relevant it would actually be in the field of forensics.

In their follow-up response, the student continued to express uncertainty about the relevance of the applicability of the topic to forensic anthropology, noting that the field is not heavily centered on medical applications. While they explored potential applications, such as using DNA preservation to identify decomposed remains or reconstructing damaged fingerprints, they remained unsure about the practicality and frequency of these techniques in forensic work. Although the concept intrigued them, their lingering doubts and inability to fully connect the topic to their career interests indicate that the assignment was not tailored enough for them to bridge the gap between chemistry topics and their professional goals.

For some students, engagement with the article led to a diminished perception of the topic's relevance to their career interests. One such case involved a student who initially linked the topic of “Structure of Ionic Compounds and Lattice Energy” to their prospective career as a physician assistant. In their baseline response, the student expressed a tentative but positive connection, stating:

Because everything around us is made of ions, knowing about their structure is very useful, especially ionic compounds. Because then, I can apply said knowledge to how to treat a human body, what to prescribe for them in a medical setting, or exploit it during labs to get my desired results. But, I then also need to know how ionic compounds interact with each other, and that's where lattice energy comes into play. Though I haven't learned about it, so I can't say for sure. Yet, I'm looking forward to it when I have the chance to.

Here, the student conveyed an openness to exploring the relevance of ionic compounds and lattice energy to their career. While acknowledging limited knowledge of the topic, they expressed optimism about its potential utility, especially in practical settings such as prescribing medications or conducting laboratory work. This response reflected a nascent connection that could deepen with further exposure and understanding. After reading the article “Just like toothpaste: Fluoride radically improves the stability of perovskite solar cells” (Eindhoven University of Technology, 2019), however, the student's perceived relevance of the topic to their career goals diminished. Their follow-up response revealed growing uncertainty:

I don't know for sure about this article though because I feel like this lands more on the chemical engineering side. I don't know for sure because I haven't thought about it much and I'm not able to think outside the box of how to apply such knowledge. Maybe from this, I might be able to create an application for fluoride for my patients. Or applying knowledge to create better support/protection for machinery or people who operate regularly outside, maybe a suit or a protective armor to reduce the damage of the UV light in a case where holes start to appear more on our ozone layer? It is an amusing research question, but I am very unsure if this will be relevant for my future career.

In this response, the student struggled to find meaningful connections between the article and their well-defined career interest (physician assistant) within medicine, highlighting the article's misalignment with their professional goals. While they made tentative attempts to identify applications, such as “an application for fluoride for my patients.” or “protective armor to reduce the damage of UV light…” these connections lacked clarity and relevance to their envisioned role as a physician assistant. The student ultimately expressed significant doubt, stating, “I am very unsure if this will be relevant for my future career.”

Another student aspiring to become an Environmental Scientist developed reservations about the topic's utility after reading the article “Toward overcoming solubility issues in organic chemistry” (Hokkaido University, 2021). They mentioned:

In all honesty I do not see much of a connection between the article “Toward Overcoming Solubility Issues in Organic Chemistry” and my future career path in environmental science. This is mostly because I want to be working with remote sensing in the environment and environmental analysis using geographic information system (GIS). Although I enjoy chemistry and I see how it can be used within the environmental science field, like analysis of water samples, I cannot envision myself working in that specific section of the field. In the analysis of water samples this article may prove very beneficial. This is because being able to synthesize chemicals that were previously unable to be synthesized may allow for other chemical hazards to be detected that were previously unable to be detected.

Both these examples highlight a shift from initial hesitant optimism to greater uncertainty in their follow-up response suggesting that the articles introduced concepts not completely aligned with students’ specific career interests, making it difficult for the students to see its relevance to their future career.

In summary, for students under this theme, IUVI assignments provided students with an opportunity to reassess their initial uncertainties about the relevance of specific topics to their career interests. For some students, this reflection resulted in a persistence of ambiguity or hesitation, as the intervention did not fully resolve their doubts or provide the clarity needed to strengthen the connection between chemistry and their career interests. For others in this theme, self-reflection led to a decrease in perceived relevance, particularly when the articles introduced concepts that felt unrelated or better suited to other fields.

Discussion

At its core, chemistry is a story; a story of how molecules interact, how energy moves, and how scientific discoveries change lives. But for students to appreciate this story, they need to see themselves as part of it. Developing a sense of value for chemistry is essential for students to appreciate its role in their academic and professional journeys. While there is no universal strategy to ensure that all students find chemistry valuable, research suggests that contextualized instruction particularly that which emphasizes the relevance of content to students’ lives and aspirations can significantly shape students’ perceptions of a subject's utility (Durik et al., 2015). Therefore, instructional efforts that explicitly support students in identifying real-world connections, such as utility value interventions, may serve as a promising pathway to cultivating meaningful engagement and fostering longer-term appreciation for the field of chemistry. The current study employed IUVI to promote utility value of chemistry by offering students career-relevant articles that connect chemistry topics to their career interests and writing prompts to reflect on the relevance. IUVI was designed to bridge the gap between abstract chemistry concepts and students’ career interests. By engaging with IUVI, students were encouraged to reflect on how learning chemistry can shape their professional journeys.

Through a detailed analysis of student responses, four key themes emerged highlighting the variation in student responses after engaging with the career-relevant reading materials. Analysis of student reflections revealed how exposure to career-relevant chemistry content through IUVI assignments helped most students reinforce, refine, or expand their understanding of chemistry's utility to their career interests. In some cases, students described chemistry as an essential tool in their envisioned careers, suggesting that the IUVI materials aligned with and reinforced their perceptions of its relevance beyond the classroom (Theme 1). Other students used the assignment to reaffirm existing views of chemistry's role in their professional goals, treating it as an opportunity to validate previously held perspectives (Theme 2). Some reflections pointed to a refinement or expansion of career interests, as students considered additional ways chemistry might connect to various professional interests (Theme 3). However, other students continued to express uncertainty or diminished certainty in chemistry's relevance to their career interests (Theme 4). These findings resonate with Rosenzweig et al.'s (2021) work on attraction and disenchantment with career paths, particularly within the biomedical sciences. For students described by Theme 1, 2, and 3, IUVI served as a mechanism of attraction, cultivating and maintaining their sense of relevance in the subject of chemistry. However, Theme 4 illustrates a contrasting pattern. For these students, the IUVI assignments failed to generate meaningful connections, leading to uncertainty, a form of disenchantment.

Overall, the findings emphasize two central factors influencing students' perceptions of the utility of chemistry content: the nature of the instructional material and students’ prior conceptions of chemistry's relevance to their career interests. According to Expectancy-Value Theory, students are more likely to engage in learning tasks when they perceive them as useful or instrumental for achieving their future aspirations (Eccles and Wigfield, 1995; Wigfield and Eccles, 2000). Within this framework, the IUVI assignments were intended to promote utility value by contextualizing chemistry topics within career-relevant readings. However, students' prior beliefs about the usefulness of chemistry shaped how they interpreted and responded to the intervention. Prior research has shown that pre-existing motivational beliefs can function as cognitive filters, either facilitating or limiting the assimilation of new, relevant information (Pintrich, 2003; Alexander et al., 2009). For example, students represented in Theme 2 entered the IUVI assignment with a stable belief in the relevance of chemistry to their careers. Their responses suggest that the IUVI served to reaffirm this belief, reinforcing their perceived utility value of the subject and supporting sustained motivation toward their academic goals. In contrast, students in Theme 4 exhibited persistent uncertainty or decreased perceptions of relevance. These students appeared to begin the assignment with lower utility value beliefs, viewing chemistry as peripheral to their career interests. As EVT predicts, when students do not perceive academic content as instrumental for their future, they are less likely to engage meaningfully or experience motivation toward the subject (Wigfield and Eccles, 1992; Flake et al., 2015). For these students, the IUVI readings did not shift their beliefs, possibly due to a misalignment between the provided content and their career interests. The lack of perceived task value, particularly utility, can limit students’ willingness to cognitively engage with material, reducing its motivational impact (Wigfield and Eccles, 2000). These results suggest that efforts to support students’ development of utility value must attend not only to the relevance of content but also to students' initial beliefs and readiness to make those connections. Instructional designs that provide opportunities for students to select their own career-relevant materials or receive more tailored content may better support students with initially low perceptions of utility.

Implications

The findings from this study suggest that IUVI can be a valuable tool for integrating career-relevant content into chemistry education across different educational settings. Given its adaptability, IUVI can be incorporated into various instructional formats, making it applicable for both large and small class environments. In large lecture courses, IUVI can be utilized as a structured assignment to encourage students to reflect on the relevance of chemistry to their career goals. Assigning IUVI as a homework or discussion board activity allows students to engage with the material at their own pace. In smaller classroom settings, where there are more opportunities for discussion and interaction, IUVI could be adapted as an in-class activity to stimulate collaborative learning and real-time engagement with career-relevant chemistry topics. Instructors could use IUVI to facilitate peer discussions, where students share their connections between chemistry and their intended careers, allowing for varied viewpoints and interdisciplinary perceptions.

An essential characteristic of the IUVI is that chemistry topics presented are aligned with students’ career interests. Surveying students early in the semester can help identify students’ career interests and this data can be used to tailor reading materials accordingly. The IUVI approach appears flexible in terms of curating reading materials as personalized development was seen across a range of reading materials; however, attention should be paid to readability and length of the reading materials. For students who are undecided or from non-major populations, instructors can offer a broader selection of articles that span multiple fields (such as healthcare, technology, materials science). Students can then choose among these articles which best aligns with their interests. The IUVI prompts for these students could involve encouraging them to explore chemistry's potential across disciplines rather than linking content to a predetermined goal. This exploratory framing could foster interest and promote a sense of relevance even in the absence of clear career trajectories. Furthermore, IUVI could serve as a model for efforts to incorporate real-world applications into upper-level chemistry courses such as Organic chemistry, Inorganic chemistry and Biochemistry, helping students make meaningful connections between chemistry content and their career interests.

A key consideration for further enhancing IUVI's impact is increasing student autonomy in the selection of learning materials. Prior research suggests that student autonomy fosters deeper engagement and motivation, particularly when students can actively shape their learning experiences based on their interests (Deci and Ryan, 2000; Patall et al., 2008). Providing students with greater autonomy in their learning experiences can be an effective way to address both content design and students’ prior conceptions about chemistry's relevance to their careers. Research suggests that when students have agency in selecting learning materials, they are more likely to engage with content that aligns with their personal interests, thereby fostering stronger utility perceptions and deeper motivation (Deci and Ryan, 2000; Patall et al., 2013). One way to enhance student autonomy within IUVI assignments may be to facilitate students identifying relevant articles themselves, rather than being limited to a pre-selected set of readings. This could be achieved by supporting students in searching for and choosing articles from scholarly sources, such as Google Scholar, ScienceDaily, or professional organizations within their career field of interest. By doing so, students can explore the latest research, technological advancements, and industry applications, making their learning experience more personalized and meaningful. Ultimately, ensuring that chemistry education is both contextually relevant and student-driven can help cultivate a stronger appreciation for the subject and its real-world applications.

Limitations

While this study provides valuable insights into how IUVI plays a role in shaping students’ perceptions of chemistry's utility, several limitations should be acknowledged. First, this study should be considered through a hermeneutic lens, recognizing that the interpretation of qualitative data is inherently influenced by the researchers’ perspectives. It is possible that a different researcher, applying an alternative framework, may have analyzed the same data and arrived at different thematic conclusions. Second, the study was conducted within a single general chemistry course at a research-intensive institution, which limits the generalizability of the results. As qualitative findings are inherently context-specific, readers should interpret transferability with caution and consider how institutional and instructional contexts may affect student engagement with IUVI. Third, the study relied on self-reported written reflections, which may not fully capture the depth or nuance of students’ experiences. These reflections are susceptible to social desirability bias, that is, students may have shaped their responses based on what they believed instructors expected to read, rather than offering unfiltered reflections. Additionally, because the assignment was graded, students may have written in ways they perceived as more favorably aligned with the evaluation criteria (Saleh and Bista, 2017). Fourth, no formal fidelity check was conducted to make sure students read the articles. That is, the findings of the study are based on the assumption that a comparison between each student's baseline and follow-up responses reflects each student's authentic experience with the reading materials. Last, the study captured immediate reflections following IUVI assignments but did not measure or assess whether reading the career-relevant materials had lasting effects on students' utility value. Longitudinal research could provide deeper insights into whether IUVI fosters sustained utility perceptions of chemistry.

Conflicts of interest

SEL receives funding from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). The RSC played no role in the data collection, data analysis or manuscript preparation in this work.

Data availability

A spreadsheet of the research articles used in this setting for each career and chemistry topic are included as a supplementary information file accompanying this article. The data are not publicly available as approval for this study did not include permission for sharing data publicly. See DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d5rp00081e

Appendix

See Table 4 for the full version of the codebook.

Table 4 Full version of codebook generated from student responses

Codes	Description	Interpretation based on EVT
Personal anecdote	Students’ follow-up response includes an example from their life with them or someone they know as the subject. This code isn’t applicable if a student cites a personal anecdote either in the baseline response or in both baseline and follow-up response.	Student incorporating personal anecdote after reading the article demonstrates that they can envision how chemistry content is practically applicable to their future careers.
Hypothetical anecdote	Students’ follow-up response includes a futuristic imaginary anecdote with explicitly stating themselves as the subject. The student (i.e. the subject) makes an explicit connection to the field in the futuristic imaginary anecdote. This code isn’t applicable if a student cites a hypothetical anecdote either in the baseline response or in both pre- and follow-up response.	Student incorporating hypothetical anecdote after reading the article reflects forward-looking utility beliefs and an imagined instrumental use of chemistry content.
Utility for research	Students’ follow-up response mentions how a particular concept, method, tool, or piece of knowledge can be utilized by them in conducting or pursuing research in future. This code can be applied when a student explicitly mentions themselves as the “subject” in conducting/pursuing future research OR when a student connection implies that they wish to conduct/pursue future research without an explicit mention of themselves as the “subject”. [This code isn’t applicable if there is only mention of utility of particular concept, method, tool, or piece of knowledge for the field or science in general.]	Student views chemistry content as instrumental to achieving long-term career goals through research after reading the article.
Attainment-utility	This code applies when a students’ baseline response lists “attainment value” of the topic to the career i.e. usefulness of the topic to perform well on the tasks that lead up to the career path and the follow-up response lists “utility value” of the topic to the career i.e. usefulness of the topic in their career itself. The exact usefulness of the topic will be captured by other sub-codes.	Student views chemistry content instrumental for their career goals after reading the article.
Constancy of anecdotes	This code is applicable if a student lists a personal/hypothetical anecdote in both the baseline and follow-up responses. Note that this code is not sensitive to the “nature/type” of anecdote.	Student views chemistry content as relevant both before and after reading the article.
Constancy of uncertainty in relevance	This code is applicable if a student lists an uncertainty of applicability/connection of the topic in both the baseline and follow-up responses.	Student views the usefulness of chemistry content for their future career with low confidence both before and after reading the article.
Decrease in topic relevance	This code is applicable when a student in their follow-up response explicitly mentions what they learned/read in the article is not applicable/useful to their future career choice.	Student views the usefulness of chemistry content for their future career with low confidence after reading the article.
Broadening career choice	This code is applicable when a student talks about expanding their career choice after reading the article i.e. finding a new path that piques their interest. This code is also applicable when a student follow-up response mentions interest in a career path/choice which is different than their original career path/choice statement.	Student views chemistry content to be useful for more diverse professional trajectories after reading the article.
Streamlining career choice	This code is applicable when a student talks about narrowing down their career choice after reading the article i.e. refining their career choice.	Student views chemistry content to be more clearly useful for a specific trajectory after reading the article.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. 2121416. The authors would like to thank the instructors for allowing data collection and the students for participating in this study. The authors would like to acknowledge Lisa Dawood for their role in curation of IUVI database and development of Qualtrics assignments.

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