This morning we had the beginning of the EPSRI Congress. Abby's presentation was hugely stimulating and had several of us talking through lunch (at PCC) about the special status, if any, of thermal energy - whether energy transformations always involve some, whether and when thermal energy can transform into other forms of energy, etc. The discussion included stretching springs, falling comets, quantum field oscillations, the sufficiency of various types of explanations, learners' interest/disinterest in being told answers, what happens in a conversation when people show interest/disinterest in what someone else is saying, potential tradeoffs between (Rogerian) genuineness and acceptance -- it was one of those conversations. As we got up to walk back to SPU, a guy sitting across from us pulled at my sleeve and said, "Excuse me, before you go -- could you tell me what caused this vortex of intellectual intensity that you all seem to be experiencing over there? Because I'm pretty sure I heard you talking about physics at first, and just now you were talking about interpersonal psychology, and I'm just trying to imagine what would make you have such an amazing conversation for such a long time."
I don't remember exactly what I said - I think I explained that we study the teaching and learning of physics and that we were having a sort of a conference, sharing findings from a common data set of video of people learning physics together. I do know that I grinned hugely, because I am so grateful to have such a great field and such awesome colleagues, with whom these kinds of conversations happen all the time!
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