You might be interested in the following link concerning Intrinsic Motivation in relation to the cutting board project and the student response.

Intrinsic motivation involves the following factors:

Challenge: People are best motivated when they are working toward personally meaningful goals whose attainment requires activity at a continuously optimal (intermediate) level of difficulty.

Curiosity: Something in the physical environment attracts the learner's attention or there is an optimal level of discrepancy between present knowledge or skills and what these could be if the learner engaged in some activity.

Control: People have a basic tendency to want to control what happens to them.

Fantasy: Learners use mental images of things and situations that are not actually present to stimulate their behavior.

Competition: Learners feel satisfaction by comparing their performance favorably to that of others.

Cooperation: Learners feel satisfaction by helping others achieve their goals.

Recognition: Learners feel satisfaction when others recognize and appreciate their accomplishments.

Most school settings are dependent on extrinsic motivation, grades, approval of teaching staff, etc. When you are able to shift the learning environment from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation, you help your students become lifelong self-motivated learners. The woodshop does it.