While the conceptual change model of learning has contributed much to our understanding of how children learn science, recent criticisms of the model point out its lack of attention to motivational issues. This paper examines one such motivational construct of importance to the model: epistemic motivation. After a description of the construct, we describe our work on developing an instrument to measure epistemic motivation, and we discuss interview data that also helps explicate how this construct operates in elementary school children. We also discuss links to other areas of the educational literature. Contains 26 references and provides sample items from the first and second versions of the Survey of Elementary Epistemic Motivation. (Author)