| Sumario: | Experiencing the emotion of awe can facilitate a perspective shift called small self that reorients one's focus toward the wellbeing of the collective. In the present study, I followed 12 adolescents in two summer science programs to investigate how the instructional design informed students' relationships to the large, complex scientific phenomena they were studying, and the extent to which experiencing awe facilitated this orientation. The findings indicated that even when students were awed by the vastness and complexity of natural systems, they were less inclined to acknowledge themselves as having agency and responsibility within those systems. A cross-site analysis pointed to interactions between the unique features of each setting and students' orientation toward the scientific concepts being taught. Overall, the findings suggested that more explicit cues for transfer would help students identify opportunities to reflect on these emotionally evocative experiences and apply the resulting understanding in new, meaningful ways.
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