Motivating the Unmotivated – 4 Practical Tips to Help Students Care [Episode 197]

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:01]:
So the end of August is always kind of a funny time for me just to know how to speak to y’. All. Like, some of you are still on summer break. You’re not even thinking about the new school year until after Labor Day. And others of you have been in the trenches for a month now, and kind of the newness and shiny, sparkly nature of a new back to school season has very much worn off. You’re having your first test, you’re having your first conferences with parents, and you’re starting to feel maybe a little tired. But whether you’ve met your students yet this year or have known them for a while now, at some point this school year, I know each and every one of you will come face to face with an unmotivated student or 2 or 10. You know, those students who complain like, why do I have to take this class? I’m never going to do science again, or, you know, chemistry means nothing, you know, or even maybe you have students that they’re so unmotivated, they don’t even care if they pass this course or not.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:01]:
I’ve seen that some of my students, the problems in their lives seem so much greater to them than how they’re doing in their science class. So regardless of what is, you know, the heart behind the unmotivation, we will face students that feel that way. And so we need to know how to handle this kind of student because it’s hard. And so that’s what we’re going to cover today. Let’s get to it. This is Secondary Science Simplified, a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I’m Rebecca Joyner from It’s Not Rocket Science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers, love their jobs, serve their students, and do it all in only 40 hours a week.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:50]:
Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place, teacher friend. Let’s get to today’s episode. Okay, I have four tips I want to share with you today for how to motivate the unmotivated students in your classroom. But before we get to those four tips, I need to start by making sure we’re putting this in its proper place. Yes, we want to motivate and encourage students. 100% we want to do that. But I do not want any of you listening to this to be killing yourselves trying to make your students care if you’re already like, ugh, yeah, I see myself kind of bent towards that, like spinning my wheels, using a ton of energy, trying to get them fired up. I want you to pause this right now and go back and listen to episode 123, which is what to do when you care more than your students do.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:45]:
That’s going to be important for you to hear because I don’t want you wasting a ton of energy trying to force them to care. Okay? But there are things. I have four things that you can do that I think are really helpful when you get in these situations. But again, also keep it in its proper place. Like, you’re going to outline some things for them, but at the end of the day, like, we’re not going to drag their motivation to the finish line, if you will. So the first thing I want you to do when you come face to face with an unmotivated student or two is to point out the facts. Especially if this is the beginning of the school year. Like, point out to them, okay, if this is a required class to graduate, then they have to take it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:27]:
And if they have a problem with that, they can take it up with the state department of education. Like, you’re not the one who decided that biology is a required class. Okay? The state did. Second, if this is not a required class, then I would literally point them to a school counselor. Like, no one is forcing you to be in here. I’m sure there’s something else you can take. Like if you need three sciences to graduate, you’ve already taken biology and chemistry, which are the state managed to, and you’ve chosen anatomy for number three, and you’re saying it’s all terrible and you hate being here and yada yada yada. Like, unless you’re at a really tiny school, there’s probably another science class you can take.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:01]:
Even if you are at a tiny school, I bet there’s a dual enrollment class that those upperclassmen can take at the college. So, like, I would be pointing out those facts to them first and foremost, but I’m also a very like, rational, logical person. So I like, I like the facts. I’d point out the facts in a way that is lacking SaaS as much as you can. I struggle with the sass, so that would be hard for me. But I would point out the facts as kindly and gently as possible. Okay. The second thing I would do is I would highlight the science skills that they are acquiring.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:30]:
Like, of course they’re not all going to care about the content. Okay. There are very few people that love all science Content. Even the people that are like the science kids probably don’t love botany as much as they love chemistry, as much as they love physics as much as they love astronomy. Like you kind of tend to find your, your lane, whether that’s a life science or a physical science or an earth space science, you know, trend. And that’s like what you care about most. So I think if we try so hard to make them care about the content, it just often leaves us in an argument with them where they’re just like proving they don’t care about the content. So I think focusing on the science skills and that’s where I think the NGSS did a great job with the seps, the science and engineering practices because they’re so practical.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:11]:
They are things that will help them in any, any science class that they ever come into. But then also like a lot of other classes and coursework and life things as well. You know, that’s the ask questions and define problems. Developing and using models. I can’t think of one job that’s not going to require them to do both of those things. Everything’s going to require those things. Planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing, interpreting data, using mathematics and computational thinking, maybe not so much, but still. The next three are construct explanations and design solutions.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:43]:
Engage in argument for evidence, obtain, evaluate and communicate information. I mean those last three are things that I do daily as a part time stay at home mom. Okay, so even if they don’t want to have a career and they, they want to be a default parent, the one who stays home, like those I’m constructing explanations, designing solutions, engaging my firstborn for sure in argument all the time and then constantly having to gather information, communicate it to them in a way they understand. Like those are science skills, but they are life skills too. And so I recommend like put those SCPS on a poster. There’s some you can buy, I’m sure on the Internet, but you could even like get a Fun font. Print 1 per 8.5 by 11 page. Print it on like either white paper and then like stick it on a piece of construction paper and laminate it or print it on neon paper.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:34]:
I love doing that. Laminate them, hang them on your, on your wall and then point to those as you’re doing different things in the class to say like hey, these are the different skills like we’re working on. Just to remind you, like these are going to help you forever. I think another really specific takeaway here, that’s like a fun thing to do at the beginning of the Year is. I’ve mentioned research and reports before. This is something I came up with during my anatomy curriculum and I’ve gone back and like added it in to biology and physical science a little bit too. And it’s in chemistry because that came after anatomy. But is giving students a research topic something that they’re going to go off and research on their own and then come back and report and then you can decide how structured you want the like assessment of this to be.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:15]:
But a research and report you could do is saying, hey, pick a career you are really interested in. It could be anything. It could be being a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, It could be being a stay at home dad. Like, I mean it could literally be anything. And then I want you to see what it takes to do that career and how many of these seps will be a part of it and explain the application of them. Like that is something that could get them seeing. Like, okay, I will need to develop and use models or whatever. I mean, I’m thinking about again, it’s football season.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:45]:
It’s like NFL preseason. All we’re doing is like thinking about football in my house and thinking like, again, we love sports documentaries. Seeing all the different times these players are looking at these models of like these different plays and having to memorize. Like, that is a skill that a football player has to have. And there are so many ways that all of these work for all sorts of different careers. And so I think really emphasizing that and that’s a fun little thing for them to do that they might care about might get them a little bit more motivated throughout the year. Say like, hey, these are the skills we’re cultivating. It’s not just about, you know, learning the sales cycle.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:17]:
Okay? The content may not matter them at all and it may not matter to their futures at all other than them maybe needing this class to graduate high school. But the skills that they learn in your class will matter. These SCPs truly translate so much. Third thing I would say is kind of adjacent to this. Not just pointing out the science skills, but just pointing out the life skills they’re going to learn in your class. I say this all of the time and I tell every teacher who uses my chemistry curriculum to say this at the beginning of the school year. Chemistry is a critical thinking and problem solving class. I am not teaching you stoichiometry in this class.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:52]:
I’m teaching you how to critically think in problem solve. Like, that is essentially what chemistry is. Yes, we are going to do it through stoichiometry. You know, through gas laws and like all these other things. But that is what it is. And so I think really emphasizing those life skills and how you’re training their brains to do these things matters so much more than this skill. So again, critical thinking, problem solving in my classroom, collaborating and working in groups. Every single day in my classroom, they will work with a partner or a small group, period.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:22]:
We’re constantly doing group work. Yes, there are opportunities where I’ll just say, like, hey, if you don’t want to work with your partner, you can work on your own, like that kind of thing. But like, collaboration and working in group is key. I can’t think of one job where they’re not going to have to do that at some point in their life. Even reporting to a superior, you know, they’re going to have to be able to collaborate and work in groups. Another life skill is asking good questions. You know, I brought this up a few episodes ago in our inquiry lesson, but like, I’m constantly trying to teach my students to engage in a discussion and to be able to go back and forth and, and not just say I don’t know or I can’t do this, but like, ask a question that’s gonna help you get to the solution that you want. It’s a great social skill too.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:02]:
I’ve mentioned of like, just being able to be in a conversation with people and be able to think of good questions and ask them. Question asking is like such an important life skill. And then I think finally, the most important life skill is doing things you don’t wanna do. I mean, it sounds like, you know, negative to say, but honestly, like, think right now, how much of your day are you doing things that you don’t want to do? Parts of your job, life tasks where you’re sitting on, you know, the phone, going through an automated AI thing, trying to answer the questions in order to get to the point where you can ask the question you have or talk to a human being. You know, going through the bath time routine for like this millionth time in the seven years you’ve been a parent. You know, I don’t know. There’s always something we don’t want to do in life. Every single day, you’re going to do things you don’t want to do.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:49]:
And you need to build up some resilience, some muscles for that. I’ll link my podcast episode about, you know, how to train students in resilience. I think it’s honestly one of the most important ones I’ve ever recorded so I’ll link that in the show notes. But like, that is a muscle we all need to have. And we need to kind of, I hate to say, like, buck up and put on your big boy pants and do it or like whatever redneck saying you want to say. But like, genuinely, there are so many times I have to like, just like take a deep breath and be like, okay, I gotta like push through and do this hard thing. And that is what we’re teaching when you’re, you’re taking a class you don’t want to take. So it’s actually a good thing to be in a class that you’re not motivated in because you’re going to learn a lot of life skills in that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:11:28]:
Okay? So again, point out the facts to students, highlight the science skills that are going to matter to them in their life. Highlight the life skills, like I just mentioned, that are going to matter, particularly learning to do things you don’t want to do and just getting used to that. And then lastly, I want to encourage you and this is something you’re not going to do face to face with your students, but you can do now and you can do just kind of in the background. It’s just auditing your resources and your instructional methods for connections and relevancy. So like I said at the beginning of this episode, I don’t want you killing yourself trying to make your students care about every single thing you teach and making every single thing like relatable and relevant. Like at the end of the day, like there’s just going to be kids always that don’t care about cellular respiration, okay? They don’t care about thermochemistry. They don’t care about thermodynamics or, you know, the electromagnetic spectrum or whatever. They just don’t care.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:19]:
There are things that I teach that I don’t care about. But here’s what we can do. We can audit our resources for three things. So I want you to go through the resources at least just for your next unit and look for, are you attempting to bring in relevant content, those real world connections, as much as you can? Because that is important. We want to bring those in. If you use my it’s not rocket science curriculum head and check out the NGSS alignment guide. A lot of the phenomena ideas listed there bring in a ton of real world connections. And then there are others that are just simply like embedded in there.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:50]:
Like when you get to chemical equilibrium. In the chemistry curriculum, we’re going to learn about ocean acidification. That is a real World connection, Is it one that everyone will care about? No, but we’re still going to incorporate a variety of different things there. Okay, so look for content relevancy here. And another thing I want you to look for is are you attempting to bring in cultural relevancy as you can? So for example, I have an assignment here and there where in different curricula where they will make a short form video like a TikTok or an Instagram reel, and in order to show their understanding about something that’s something that like maybe the content’s not relevant for them, but the methodology through which they’re going to show their understanding it is relevant. Or maybe you’re going to have them use AI to do something that’s going to be a key part of the assignment. You know, but bringing in those culturally relevant things I think can be really fun. Like when memes first came out, having students make a meme.

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:43]:
You know, there’s always something new. Even as I’m recording this, I’m sure there’s going to be something new that’s come out that’s culturally relevant that you can tie in. Even if it’s just like a cultural event, you know, if the timing of it’s coming up with the Oscars or something, and you can bring that in, or election years, you can tie that in. Like anything like that is a great tie in to bring in. Even if it’s not relevant to the content, the way that they’re showing their learning. Could you bring in some sort of relevancy there to the culture? And then the third thing I’d audit your resources for is an attempt to bring in other subjects that maybe your students will care more about those than they care about yours. So for example, first I always just kind of look for ways to bring in other sciences. So like, how can I bring in life science into my chemistry curriculum so that students that are like the life science kids who are just like dying in chemistry, there’s going to be some relevancy for them.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:35]:
That’s why I bring in things like ocean acidification or some biochemistry topics of like looking into different drugs and addictions and things like that because it’s interesting for those students. Or in your physical sciences, how can you bring those into, like maybe your biology class, how can you do some more engineering type things or STEM type things? What are the crossovers? Cause I think that’s really helpful in one regard. And then the other thing is just looking for other subjects. Like I said, like outside of science, you know, how can you bring in math, that’s often easy. In a lot of the sciences, there’s usually a quantitative component to most science courses. Writing, art, like are there ways that each unit you can have some sort of option that is more creative, more visual, more hands on creating a model or something to help those students who want to express themselves that way? Is there a historical component you can bring in that would bring in some historical relevancy for your students who love history? So looking for those things. These are all, all three of these things are things I’m constantly considering when I write my curriculum and hopefully things those of you who use it, rocket science resources, complete units or full year bundles which I’ll link in the show notes. Like, hopefully you see those threads in there.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:44]:
Cause I think that’s one thing we can be doing on the back end. Okay, so that’s my take home challenge for you. Now I’m going to make it really, really specific for you. Set a timer for five minutes when this podcast episode ends. And I just want you to brain dump like in a note on your phone. You could do a voice memo, you could do it by hand. But brain dump, like think about one of your preps and brain dump life skills that you can think of that are being promoted in this class and then content and cultural connections and other like what I was just talking about the end other subjects you could bring in maybe ways that you’re already bringing in those things or ways you can maybe bring them in more and incorporate them in your class and even see if there’s some crossover with other subjects where you can pair up with another teacher, like in AP Biology, Like I’m pairing up with the AP Stats teacher and saying, hey, can you come help my AP bio students with like chi square and some stuff? Then how can I help you? Can I give you some data and some ways you can bring biology data into your AP Stats class? So they’re seeing some things there too, and vice versa. See if you can do some partnerships there.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:44]:
But I think if you just sit down and spend three to five minutes on this and you come up with this list, it’ll encourage you and then it’ll also give you something you can readily consult when you come face to face with a student who’s like completely unmotivated. So I hope this helps. I hope you will first and foremost put this in its proper place and not take on too much ownership and responsibility for your student’s motivation. But then, practically speaking, I hope you will point out the facts to them, highlight science skills, highlight life skills, and also audit your resources for connections and relevancy. If you’d like to check out any it’s not rocket science units or those other two podcast episodes I mentioned, you can find that all linked in the show notes at it’s not rocketscienceclassroom.com episode 197 and I would love it if you would leave a review today if you are feeling motivated to motivate your students this school year. Alright teacher friends, that wraps up today’s episode. If you’re looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher, head to itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com challenge to grab your classroom Reset challenge. And guess what? It’s totally free.

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:52]:
Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be rooting for you, teacher friend.