Transfer/transformation

[I'm having trouble uploading video. I will try to add the clips later.]

On the UE1 field trip Monday morning, Barb, Bill and Brian (Table 2) had a discussion about terms being used in the class that they do not really understand. Brian says that he doesn’t know what the difference is between energy transfer and transformation. Bill provides an explanation, but then offers the idea that “transfer and transformation is the same thing.” He does not, however, claim to fully understand this (“I don’t know. That’s why I’m taking the class.”)

Later, in the classroom, Lezlie is at Table 2 and they are talking about terminology and definitions. Bill brings up the conversation they had outside about ‘transfer’ and ‘transform’.

1 Bill: We we one of the conversations we started with when we were outside

2 was the difference between transfer and transformation?

3 ((Lezlie nods))

4 Bill: And you know I was (.) going back to the you know the bus transfer

5 kinda thing (and this ?). But in some ways it's the sa- you know

6 transfer and transformation they're sort of arbi- in some ways they

7 kinda they seem arbitrary labels for something that's happening

8 because (.) it's y- y- you're is it it's as if you're saying you know energy

9 you know like the if y- if you trans- if you're transforming a thing now

10 it's some new kind of energy.

11 Lezlie: Right. So the word form is is important in that. So transform means I'm

12 changing the form. But transfer simply means I'm taking energy from

13 one place and moving it to another place. ((nods head))

14 Barb: So those are two very different terms.

15 Bill: Presuming that we can do that.

16 Brian: Yeah I was gonna say, how do you do that.

17 Lezlie: How do you transfer energy [from a place to another?=

18 Brian: [Yeah. =Yeah.

19 Brian: I mean

20 Lezlie: Ah that's a good question.

21 Brian: Because in my understanding of (.) you know different forms of energy

22 just to take a real basic example um ((pause))

23 Lezlie: Well sometimes [you can transfer and transform at the same time.

24 Brian: [Well ((laughs))

25 Yeah yeah.

26 Lezlie: But sometimes I can transfer and it remains the same form.

27 Brian: How how

28 Lezlie: So:

29 Brian: Give me an example of that.

30 Lezlie: Sure. Um let's um uh let's take a um a hot lasagna pan out of the oven?

31 [and stick it=

32 Brian: [mm hm

33 Lezlie: =on top of my counter.

34 Brian: Okay.

35 Lezlie: What do you notice about the counter when I pick it back up.

36 Brian: It's hot.

37 Lezlie: Okay.

38 Brian: Yep.

39 Lezlie: So I can say that I transfered heat energy from

40 Brian: From the pan to the counter. Okay.

41 Lezlie: Okay.

42 Brian: Okay. (.) All right.

Having witnessed the earlier conversation Bill directly references in line 1, I heard Bill to be once again calling into question the distinction between transfer and transformation. However, the many false starts and restarts in this utterance may make it difficult for Lezlie to parse, and her response does not reflect that understanding. Rather she seems to affirm precisely what Bill was calling into question with “it’s as if you’re saying” in line 8: that energy changes from one form to another. Bill and Brian challenge her about this at first, but then appear to be satisfied with the answer she gives and they move on. But I wonder if this issue is resolved for Bill (or the others in the group) or if it will come up again. I don’t have a firm grasp of what Bill means when he says “it’s just energy and there’s no difference between transfer and transformation,” but one possibility is that the nature of the objects between which energy is being transferred determines the way in which energy manifests itself in a process, and therefore transformation would be reducible to transfer. (Does that make sense?)