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Suzanne Becker
Gage Middle School
Motivation
& desire to
learn
“Education is essential to change, for education
creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy
them.”
—Henry Steele Commager
Summer 2010
Table of Contents
Cover Story 1
Calendar of Events 2
More Information 3
Resources 4
Other Opportunities 5
Pseudoscience Central 6
Science Humor 7
Michael Horton
Coordinator
mhorton@rcoe.us
(951) 826-6729
I recently read a book that made too much sense to be ignored. It is “Activating the
Desire to Learn” by Bob Sullo. The point that Dr. Sullo makes is that all humans have
four basic psychological needs. If you create a classroom such that students must break
your rules to meet their needs, you will never have a successful classroom because
needs eventually trump rules.
The four needs are: Belonging or Connecting, Power or Competence, Freedom or
Choice, and Fun. So, how do you set up a classroom that will automatically fail? Make
kids sit and be quiet without ever interacting, make all of their decisions for them, and
give them lots of rules. Have you ever seen a classroom like that? I have, it was my
first year teaching and boy did it fail!
On the other hand, how does Sullo suggest that you set up a science classroom in which
students can meet their needs without breaking your rules? I took his suggestions and
summarized them with a science classroom slant.
Belonging or Connecting- Have students collaborate in groups on projects,
experiments, and homework. Allow them to discuss things that you’ve just talked about
with a neighbor. Use strategies like Think-Write-Pair-Share, Socratic Seminars, and
Philosophical Chairs. Set up a Wiki for them to discuss homework problems. This is
not to say that students should never work alone. But if working alone is all that they
ever do in your class, they will break your rules to fulfill their need to connect.
Power or Competence- Students can seek power in two ways, by mastering learning or
by mastering weaker students (bullying). Give students multiple opportunities to
achieve mastery, give positive feedback to those who do achieve mastery, put them in
charge of something, and break difficult tasks into smaller achievable pieces and
students can feel power in a non-destructive way.
Freedom or Choice- Allow flexibility in how students demonstrate mastery. For
example, instead of requiring a “Safety Poster,” allow them to choose between a safety
poster, essay, podcast, interview, PowerPoint, YouTube video, radio show, website,
skit, or song. This example is one that came straight out of my chemistry classroom.
Students hated the safety poster. They loved having a choice . . . and half of them still
chose the poster. Their reaction was about the choice, not about the poster.
Fun- If you do all of the things above, students will have fun. It will be fun to interact
with peers on a project that they had some choice on. Adding more hands-on activities,
demonstrations, video clips, real-world applications, cartoons, jokes, review games,
virtual field trips, real field trips, and low-pressure competitions will further increase the
classroom fun.

Page 2
RCOE Events - http://rcoe.k12oms.org/?gid=426
July 20-22, 2010
Science Notebooks: The Cornerstone of a Powerful Science
Program
September 16, 2010
District Science Leadership Network Meeting
SBCSS Events - http://oms.sbcss.k12.ca.us/index.php
July 21-23, 2010
Service Learning: Through Earth Science
July 28-29, 2010
Service Learning: through Marine Ecology
California Regional Environmental Education Community (CREEC) Events
http://creec.edgateway.net/cs/creec10p/cal/66?x-layout=cal
San Bernardino County Museum Events - http://www.sbcounty.gov/museum/calendar/current.htm
August 21, 2010
August 28, 2010
Moon Party
Family Fun Day - Star Light, Star Bright
September18, 2010
Moon Party
September 18, 2010
Geology Rocks!
Western Center Events - http://www.westerncentermuseum.org/
May 28, 2010 – January 9, 2011
Space Spot – Astronomy Exhibit
Discovery Science Center - http://www.discoverycube.org/events.aspx
May 29 – September 12, 2010
Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body
June 5 – September 25, 2010
TINKERTOY: Build Your Imagination
JPL Events - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/
July 22-23, 2010
Moons: The Weirdest Planets In Our Solar System
August 19-20, 2010
Aquarius: Studying Sea Surface Salinity from Space
September 16-17, 2010
Mars Science Laboratory: The Search for Habitable Environments
If you would like to have an event included in a future newsletter, email it 4 weeks prior to the release of
that issue [Summer (June), Fall (October), Winter (January), Spring (April)] to mhorton@rcoe.us.
This calendar of events is not a complete list. Many events are not RCOE events and RCOE cannot verify their content.

More Information
Page 3
Judith Irvin had the same idea, just with different needs and dispositions in “Taking Action in Adolescent Literacy”
quoted below. http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107034/chapters/Student-Motivation,-Engagement,-and-Achievement.aspx
Adolescents' Needs,
Interests, and Dispositions
Need for control/autonomy
Interest in technology/media
Need to be heard
Disposition to debate
Need to make a difference
Need to belong
Sense of accomplishment
Provide choices in
Assignment topics
Assessment modes
Books to read
Order of completing work
Use technology to support
Communication
Presentation
Research
Possible Instructional Response
Provide authentic audiences, expectations, and opportunities for
writing/speaking for an audience beyond the teacher
Plan many opportunities for
Debate
Text-based discussion
Opinion boards
Blogs
Letters to the editor
Student correction of content/format errors
Set up opportunities for
Reading to/tutoring others
Research into real issues
Apprenticeships/Internships
Creating informational Web sites
Writing articles for publication
Peer editing
Create a classroom culture and reinforce classroom norms that support the
development of a community of readers, writers, and thinkers
Teach students how to participate in
Goal setting
Progress monitoring
Use of rubrics
Collaborative teaming for completion of tasks

Resources
Page 4
Online Resources:
Sample chapters from Bob Sullo’s “Activating the Desire to Learn” can be downloaded here:
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107009.aspx.
“The Six C’s of Motivation” can be read here:
http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Six_C%27s_of_motivation. The Six C’s of Motivation
are: choice, challenge, control, collaboration, constructing meaning, and consequences. Visit the site to
see what each one means, for example, “consequences” does not mean “punishment.” It means
publishing, displaying, presenting, or uploading the student work so that others may see it.
PowerPoint: “What Does the Research Say? Motivation and Achievement in Secondary Schools”
http://anneerickson.efoliomn1.com/vertical/Sites/%7B83554CFC-CA28-468E-B516-
6B7B2D082F96%7D/uploads/%7B8A6885A8-C8BA-408F-A7FF-130CC227DCB3%7D.PPT
How Can Teachers Develop Students’ Motivation - - And Success?
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat010.shtml
Books:
“Activating the Desire to Learn” can be downloaded here:
http://shop.ascd.org/productdisplay.cfm?productid=107009.
“Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement”
http://www.amazon.com/Visible-Learning-Synthesis-Meta-Analyses-
Achievement/dp/0415476186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276898454&sr=8-1
“What Every Teacher Should Know About Student Motivation”
http://www.amazon.com/Every-Teacher-Should-Student-
Motivation/dp/1412971764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276898611&sr=1-1

Page 5
High-Speed Videos
I have a new high speed video camera that can record 600 frames per second in color! I uploaded a few
sample videos (tuning fork, balloon popping, and stopwatch). I would like to make videos for teachers to
use in classrooms. If you have suggestions for videos, email them to me at mhorton@rcoe.us. If you have
items to send to be used in the video, just send them to RCOE through the district mail to RCOE, Division
of Educational Services, District and School Success Center, Attn: Mike Horton, Coordinator.
I have some videos on the website at http://scienceinquirer.wikispaces.com/movies. I can put rulers
and/or grids in the background for quantitative analyses of the videos. At 250 frames per second, the
camera can capture water balloons bouncing, low frequency vibrations, toys, rocket launches, etc.
Toy Ball Bouncing
Gauss Rifle Firing
Website Update
Crane Fly at 100X
What is this??
http://scienceinquirer.wikispaces.com/Microscope
The higher the magnification of a microscope, the smaller its “Depth of Field.” This means that only a small part of the picture
is in focus at a time. Recently, my daughter and I have been experimenting with “Focus Stacking” of microscope photos and
you can see them on the website (and some examples above). Focus stacking involves taking hundreds of pictures of the same
object focused at different depths and then using a computer program to combine all of the focused parts of the pictures
together into one focused picture. See the example of an ant below (only 3 photos shown).

Page 6
Subliminal Advertising
You’ve all heard the story about the scientist who inserted subliminal messages into a movie for a soft drink and sales
skyrocketed 57.8%. The “scientist” was James Vicary, the movie was “Picnic” . . . and none of this ever happened.
Vicary admitted to lying in 1962. The theater where it was supposedly performed doesn’t even have enough seats to
have been the theater in the experiment.
Dr. Henry Link repeated the experiment and found no growth in sales. Vicary did an experiment on TV flashing “call
now” on a call-in program and calls did not increase. Similar experiments found results equal to or not much better than
placebo effect or pareidolia. Pareidolia is the brain’s attempt to find patterns in randomness. It explains common
phenomena like faces in grilled cheese sandwiches, ghostly voices in “Electronic Voice Projections,” clouds shaped like
animals, the face on Mars, Rorschach inkblot tests, and hidden messages when music is played backwards.
Most purported subliminal advertising in print ads are pareidolia and some were clearly placed to be noticed and
therefore are not subliminal at all. Many are just people looking for the word “sex” in smoke, mirrors, lights, hair, and
liquids and zooming in too far.
Here is one claimed to be an ice cube with hidden messages in it. The “evidence” is: 1) Ice cubes don’t have holes in
them (red arrow) 2) There are images such as a monstrous head (red oval), a snake’s head (green arrow), and fish
(black arrows). First, it’s not an ice cube, it is swirling liquid and second, it’s a clear case of pareidolia.
The best point came from a 1994 study concluding that advertisements that you can actually see (supraliminal) work far
better than those that you cannot see. A soda commercial at the beginning of a movie works far better than flashing
subliminal soda messages throughout the movie.

Page 7
Science Humor
(or at least what passes for humor here)
Biological Science: A contradiction in terms.
Science Definitions:
From: http://www.ahajokes.com/sci65.html
Bunsen Burner: A device invented by Robert Bunsen (1811-1899) for brewing coffee in the laboratory,
thereby enabling the chemist to be poisoned without having to go all the way to the cafeteria.
Clinical Testing: The use of humans as guinea pigs.
Inorganic Chemistry: That which is left over after the organic, analytical, and physical chemists get through
picking over the periodic table.
Physical Chemistry: The pitiful attempt to apply y=mx+b to everything in the universe.
Scientific Method: The widely held philosophy that a theory can never be proved, only disproved, and that
all attempts to explain anything are therefore futile.
Spectrophotometry: A long word used mainly to intimidate young students.