E1: Teachers see themselves as intelligent agents who can figure things out...plus a ton of other stuff

I feel like I should preface this post with a sign that says: "Beware the mega-post."  I spent a good chunk of yesterday transcribing the 14-minute interaction pasted at the bottom of this post, and there's a lot there.

Lane has just asked the teachers to come up with a list of 'features' of energy that are important to note for energy processes, much like 'destination' and 'length of trip' are important features when one is planning to travel.  The teachers at Table 6 are Amy (close to camera on left), Joe (farther from camera on left), and Alia (on right).  They are coming up with a list of features, and that's where to clip starts. 

I'll first share what I noticed in the interaction as a whole, and then I'll share two specific clips that caught my eye.

• I clipped this episode because it seemed like an example of teachers seeing themselves as intelligent agents who can figure things out.  (This is one of our project goals.)  They've come up with a preliminary list of features, and, rather than stopping there, they start to ask themselves questions in order to determine whether their list is sufficient.  In particular, they come up with three different energy scenarios -- the sun hitting a leaf, a boat moving through the water, and a pick plucking a guitar string -- to 'test' their questions on.  In the process, they come up with a few new questions.  I loved that they did this -- that they asked themselves questions to check their list -- and I see this more often with teachers than college students but it happens rarely enough that I get really excited when I do see it.
• As they're testing their list of features, a number of other sub-conversations take place in which the participants define phrases, articulate bounds, and debate about the presence of thermal energy.  It's interesting to me to watch Joe act as mediator in what seems like conflict between Amy and Alia.  I feel like he keeps the conversation going, even in tense moments.  (And he even smiles during some of those tense moments, if you watch carefully, as though he's tickled that Alia and Amy are so deeply invested in their own ideas.)
• Alia and Amy disagree about whether or not there's thermal energy in the 'sun hitting a leaf' scenario.  I talk more about this below.
• The three of them talk extensively about where to start the processes they discuss.  I also talk more about this below.

Now for the two specific clips.  Almost 3 minutes in, Amy and Alia disagree about whether or not thermal energy is involved in photosynthesis.  Take a look: 

Episode title: E1 120806 1552 T6 figuring things out TE conflict

Transcript: Joe: What is the scenario, okay.  So within that scenario, well let's pick one so that we can see if these questions work, right, so you just said light hitting a leaf, or?
Amy: Yeah.
Joe: So, here's the sun.
Amy: Yeah.
Joe: (Laughing) And here's a beautiful leaf.
Alia: (Answering questions on board): Starts with the sun, goes through...
Amy: Here's a green marker.
Alia: Through what does it move? Through what does it move?
Joe: Okay, so can you answer, will that, can you?
Alia: Starts with the sun.
Joe: Okay, it starts with the sun.  Moves through the air.
Alia: Moves through the air.  Where does it go?
Joe: It lands on the leaf.
Amy: It goes to the chloroplast in the leaf itself.
Alia: What is the form of energy in different stages?
Joe: So it's light, it's heat, it's...
Alia: It's light, it's thermal.
Amy: It's light energy that causes.
Alia: And then chemical.
Amy: (inaudible, but I think she's talking about process)
Joe: We're not even going to talk about the heat energy.
Amy: Photosynthesis not, if you want to start with the fusion of the sun, blah blah blah, but in this one particular stage, it's light energy, so it's radiation.
Alia: Thermal, light.
Amy: (Shaking head), it's only light.
Joe: If the leaf doesn't change (?).
Alia: All energy is thermal, though.
Amy: It does, the chloroplast absorbs the energy (shooting up gesture).
Alia: But there's thermal energy in everything.
Amy: I know, but we're talking about, he said to just use one process, so if you want to talk about fusion.
Alia: No, I mean, even transferring it from the sun to there, it's thermal and...
Amy: (Shaking head) Photosynthesis is light energy, it's the light energy and the photons hit the chloroplast...
Alia: But the plant has thermal energy.
Joe: Maybe we're asking if the energy changes form, because that's what you're talking about.  Is that one of the questions maybe that we're deciding we need to add?
Amy: (agreeing with Joe, not sure what she says) What form is the energy?
Joe: Allright, maybe just add to it does it change?
Alia: What form is energy in, okay.
Amy: (inaudible) it's light, radiation, absorbed (inaudible, point at picture on board).
Joe: Right, and is that, when you say converted into chemical energy, is that your answer to question 7?
Amy: Yeah, stored (as chemical?), so that's how carbohydrates are made, oxygen is actually the waste product, the byproduct.
Alia: But you can't deny the fact that yes, it is light energy, but it's also thermal energy.  It's not one or the other.
Amy: It is coming from the sun, but what I'm saying is in the process of photosynthesis, it's only light energy, it's not thermal.
Joe: So you guys are kind of focusing on the question, what is the scenario?
Alia: Well, I'm saying...
Joe: Is it all the things, all the things energy does leaving the sun or is it just...
Alia: None of this exists though without thermal energy, because thermal energy exists in everything.  I'm not talking about this alone or this alone.
Joe: And you're deciding, I think between the two of you whether to even bring that up.  Do you want to just keep the energy that affects...
Alia: If it's there, then why not?
Joe: ...photosynthesis, or if you wanna talk about all the energy that's out there.
Amy: I think it's important for students to understand, I mean, if what we're talking, if the length of the journey is sunlight, energy in the sun, and how it affects plants, which is photosynthesis, it's really important to use the words light energy.  Because otherwise...
Alia: Well I'm not saying one or the other, I'm saying it's both.
Amy: But I'm saying that's a distraction, photosynthesis, which I think is the leg that we're talking about, one energy process...
Alia: ...includes thermal energy.
Amy: No, it does not.  The energy process in photosynthesis does not include thermal energy.  It only includes light.
Alia: Everything includes thermal energy.
Amy: No, so.
Alia: I'm not going to agree with you. (Laughs)
Amy: (inaudible)
Alia: I'm just going by what I learned in my last class and they said thermal energy is in everything.
Amy: But we're describing the energy process of photosynthesis.
Alia: In everything.  Every energy process has thermal energy.
Amy: It's light.
Joe: And I think this is why I was having so many problems and this is what happens as a result.  Because it sounds to me like, you're just talking about, like, instead.  (Knocks over cup.) Oh, shoot.  I'm sorry.
Alia: Oh, that's okay.
Joe: Instead of.  Oh wow, they put that [the towel] there for us.  Instead of photosynthesis, like, could the energy scenario be someone pushing a pencil, right?  And, in that case, we're just talking about this little piece of energy coming from my finger to the pencil.

Commentary:  I noticed a few things in this clip: that Amy is using a lot of technical language, but I don't really understand what she's thinking, and at times her disagreement with Alia seems declarative, rather than mechanistic.  Meaning that she says she disagrees, but she doesn't give a reason for what she thinks other than 'that's the way it is.'  I also noticed that Alia didn't really give a reason for what she thought, either -- her justification for there being thermal energy everywhere was that she had learned it in another course (I think probably she's referring to UE2 earlier this summer).  But definitely the language they were using to justify their positions was different -- Amy seemed to be using a lot of science-y terminology, and Alia used the authority of the class she had taken.  I wondered what this tells me about what these teachers think (perhaps implicitly) that science learning is supposed to look like.

I also noticed this because I'm attuned to look for thermal energy clips for Abby. :)

 
Episode title: E1 120806 1552 T6 figuring things out what is an event

Transcript: Alia: And some of 'em aren't, it's gonna be hard to measure.  Some scenarios.  Like take the survey videos.  Um, a person on a bike.  Does the bike have energy without somebody pedaling it?  And that was a question they were pondering.  Well, yeah it does.  Well, yeah it does!  It has thermal energy, the bike does, all by itself.  But they, it was tough for them to wrap their mind it, so they think, okay where does the energy start?  Okay, well, where does it start?  Does it start with a human, you know, or are we just starting with the bike, where do we want to start?
Amy: Right.
Alia: Type of thing.
Joe: Which is why that's the first question.
Alia: So let's say it's the human on the bike.
Amy: (inaudible)
Alia: Cause, like you said, it could go way back, I mean, are we starting with chemical energy, with the process of that's going on in the (inaudible) where energy is being pedaled into the bike.  Or are we looking just at the actual pedals making the bike move.  And the human just happens to be (inaudible).
Amy: (inaudible).
Alia: Yeah.  It kinda, it can get a little bit crazy when you start talking about, okay, where is it gonna start.
Joe: But it also seems like, yeah, some of our.
Alia: Just like (spreads hands) (inaudible).
Joe: Questions around what is, what do you mean by energy event?  What's your definition of event?  Is an event something like this? (Gesturing toward picture on whiteboard)  Or is an event something like [just one little] thing.
Alia: [Process]
Alia: The boat is an event.  This is a process.
Joe: But in the boat event, is an event just the turning of the propeller, or can we broaden the event out? 
Alia: We could.
Joe: Is there a limit to the size of the event?
Alia: There's no limit.  No, uh huh.
Amy: (inaudible) one leg of the journey, the process.
Joe: Oh, one leg.  You really took notes.
Amy: (shrugs shoulders) (inaudible)

Commentary: This clip reminded me of this blog post about defining temporal systems.  It's clear to me from the video that Joe, Alia, and Amy feel that they have a choice in the matter of defining processes, and also that they feel they've been directed to do so in a particular way.

The whole thing:

 
Episode title: E1 120806 1552 T6 figuring things out

Transcript: [00:00:00.00] Joe: Through what does it move, right? (writing on whiteboard)  Right, uh,...
Amy: What happens?
Joe: Uh, what do you mean by 'what happens?'
Amy: When it gets to its destination, what's its destination?
Joe: Where does it end?  Can I just keep the language the same?

[00:00:28.25] Amy: Where does it go?
Joe: Allright.
Amy: (inaudible)
Joe: And I think we want to know it's form, right?  What form is it, is it heat energy?  Is it...
Amy: What form does it begin as?

[00:00:41.26] Joe: What form it, how do we do?  What form is energy at different points?  Can I?
Amy: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: At different stages, through?
Alia: (Reading board:) Where does it go?
Joe: I would say you want something that measures like it's level of intensity, like how much is there?

[00:01:13.04] Amy: Yeah.  How much is there and how do we know?
Joe: Oh, good, I like that, how do we know?  How much is there, what is the evidence or something?
Amy: Yeah. (inaudible)
Joe: How do we measure?
Alia: What is that word?

[00:01:26.01] Amy: Journey.
Alia: Oh, journey.
Joe: Sorry.
Alia: That's okay, I was looking at that as two separate words, and I'm reading it upside down.
Amy: (inaudible)

[00:01:34.24] Alia: (Reading:) How much is?
Joe: How much is there?  Present, and how do we measure this?
Amy: And then what happens (inaudible).
Joe: What, um?
Amy: What happens (inaudible)?  As you move from one place to another...

[00:01:45.26] Alia: What's the purpose?
Joe: If they ask for details, you're in charge of answering that.  What happens as a result.  This, I think, what happens, to me it feels like that's kind of the question.  How do we measure it, like...
Alia: Wouldn't the first one be like what's the purpose?  Like what are we even looking at?
Joe: Like how do you know what was there, and...

[00:02:09.11] Amy: That's evidence.  What evidence do we have? (inaudible) subparts.
Joe: Give me an example of an answer to this question, 'what happens as a result?'
Amy: Um, so (inaudible) sunlight, a leaf, um, you know, yeah, you can measure the intensity of the sunlight, but then what happens as a result is that light is converted into...
Alia: Don't we have to know the purpose before we do any of this?

[00:02:36.28] Joe: What do you mean, purpose?
Alia: Well, like, what are we even looking at?  Don't we have to know that first before you answer any of these?  Like, are we, are we just doing random or?
Joe: So like, what is...
Alia: Like when we looked at the boat, we were looking at, okay, if the boat was moving through the water (inaudible).
Joe: Okay, so first we need to figure out what the scenario is that we're looking at, is that what you mean?

[00:02:53.00] Alia: Right. Yes.
Joe: What is the scenario, okay.  So within that scenario, well let's pick one so that we can see if these questions work, right, so you just said light hitting a leaf, or?
Amy: Yeah.

[00:03:06.12] Joe: So, here's the sun.
Amy: Yeah.
Joe: (Laughing) And here's a beautiful leaf.
Alia: (Answering questions on board): Starts with the sun, goes through...
Amy: Here's a green marker.
Alia: Through what does it move?

[00:03:13.26] Alia: Through what does it move?
Joe: Okay, so can you answer, will that, can you?
Alia: Starts with the sun.
Joe: Okay, it starts with the sun.  Moves through the air.

[00:03:23.09] Alia: Moves through the air.  Where does it go?
Joe: It lands on the leaf.
Amy: It goes to the chloroplast in the leaf itself.
Alia: What is the form of energy in different stages?

[00:03:31.25] Joe: So it's light, it's heat, it's...
Alia: It's light, it's thermal.
Amy: It's light energy that causes.
Alia: And then chemical.
Amy: (inaudible, but I think she's talking about process)

[00:03:37.09] Joe: We're not even going to talk about the heat energy.
Amy: Photosynthesis not, if you want to start with the fusion of the sun, blah blah blah, but in this one particular stage, it's light energy, so it's radiation.
Alia: Thermal, light.
Amy: (Shaking head), it's only light.

[00:03:50.19] Joe: If the leaf doesn't change (?).
Alia: All energy is thermal, though.
Amy: It does, the chloroplast absorbs the energy (shooting up gesture).
Alia: But there's thermal energy in everything.
Amy: I know, but we're talking about, he said to just use one process, so if you want to talk about fusion.

[00:04:12.20] Alia: No, I mean, even transferring it from the sun to there, it's thermal and...
Amy: (Shaking head) Photosynthesis is light energy, it's the light energy and the photons hit the chloroplast...
Alia: But the plant has thermal energy.
Joe: Maybe we're asking if the energy changes form, because that's what you're talking about.  Is that one of the questions maybe that we're deciding we need to add?

[00:04:32.23] Amy: (agreeing with Joe, not sure what she says) What form is the energy?
Joe: Allright, maybe just add to it does it change?
Alia: What form is energy in, okay.
Amy: (inaudible) it's light, radiation, absorbed (inaudible, point at picture on board).
Joe: Right, and is that, when you say converted into chemical energy, is that your answer to question 7?

[00:04:52.23] Amy: Yeah, stored (as chemical?), so that's how carbohydrates are made, oxygen is actually the waste product, the byproduct.
Alia: But you can't deny the fact that yes, it is light energy, but it's also thermal energy.  It's not one or the other.
Amy: It is coming from the sun, but what I'm saying is in the process of photosynthesis, it's only light energy, it's not therma.
Joe: So you guys are kind of focusing on the question, what is the scenario?

[00:05:14.03] Alia: Well, I'm saying...
Joe: Is it all the things, all the things energy does leaving the sun or is it just...
Alia: None of this exists though without thermal energy, because thermal energy exists in everything.  I'm not talking about this alone or this alone.
Joe: And you're deciding, I think between the two of you whether to even bring that up.  Do you want to just keep the energy that affects...

[00:05:33.14] Alia: If it's there, then why not?
Joe: ...photosynthesis, or if you wanna talk about all the energy that's out there.
Amy: I think it's important for students to understand, I mean, if what we're talking, if the length of the journey is sunlight, energy in the sun, and how it affects plants, which is photosynthesis, it's really important to use the words light energy.  Because otherwise...
Alia: Well I'm not saying one or the other, I'm saying it's both.

[00:05:54.28] Amy: But I'm saying that's a distraction, photosynthesis, which I think is the leg that we're talking about, one energy process...
Alia: ...includes thermal energy.
Amy: No, it does not.  The energy process in photosynthesis does not include thermal energy.  It only includes light.
Alia: Everything includes thermal energy.

[00:06:15.28] Amy: No, so.
Alia: I'm not going to agree with you. (Laughs)
Amy: (inaudible)
Alia: I'm just going by what I learned in my last class and they said thermal energy is in everything.
Amy: But we're describing the energy process of photosynthesis.
Alia: In everything.  Every energy process has thermal energy.
Amy: It's light.

[00:06:33.29] Joe: And I think this is why I was having so many problems and this is what happens as a result.  Because it sounds to me like, you're just talking about, like, instead.  (Knocks over cup.) Oh, shoot.  I'm sorry.
Alia: Oh, that's okay.
Joe: Instead of.  Oh wow, they put that [the towel] there for us.  Instead of photosynthesis, like, could the energy scenario be someone pushing a pencil, right?  And, in that case, we're just talking about this little piece of energy coming from my finger to the pencil.

[00:07:09.06] Joe: In your scenario, what happens as a result is you're, to me, talking about something that is, something that happens because of an energy transfer, right?
Amy: Right.
Joe: And she's just talking about energy.  And you're talking about a thing that happens because of energy.  So you're really focused on, we're talking about photosynthesis, what happens?  So we're going to ignore other energy.
Alia: Let's use another example.  Let's not do photosynthesis.  Let's do something else and see if this still works.

[00:07:36.23] Joe: Well, yeah, I think we're finding out what does or doesn't work.  I think that's worth doing.  And it seems like this is the disagreement here.  Is whether we're looking at where, something that happens because of, or just.
Alia: It's kind of about photosynthesis, though, and that's not what it should be about.  It should be about energy, you know.
Joe: Well, pick another.
Alia: It should be about the journey of energy, per se.

[00:07:59.06] Joe: What about direction?  Does energy have a direction, and is that important?
Amy: Sunlight radiates out in all directions, which is lucky for us.  It hits the earth and we have things that.
Joe: In every energy scenario, is there always a direction involved?  Is that a correct way to say it?  Does energy have a direction?
Amy says something inaudible.

[00:08:29.17] Joe: Here, I'll write that down.  So in another scenario.  What's another scenario?
Alia: What about what we did earlier?
Joe: Which thing?
Alia: Just to see if this would work.
Joe: The boat?
Alia: Yeah.

[00:08:42.06] Joe: The boat?
Alia: Yeah.  Just to see.  Like if a kid was to go out there and, okay, observe that, would it, would it work?
Joe: In our scenario, we chose to have it start at the propeller and move I guess through water was where we saw it moving mostly, right?  It went from the propeller into the water.  It had, we talked about forms being kinetic energy, sound energy, and a little bit of thermal energy.
Alia: Mmhm.

[00:09:07.11] Joe: How much is there, right?  I mean, I guess it depends on how much went into the system to begin with if that's a question that can be answered.  How do you measure it?  I mean, you could look at the wave, right?
Amy: How fast?
Joe: How fast it moves.  So then here we are, what happens as a result? The boat moves?

[00:09:22.26] Amy: Yeah.  Waves.
Joe: So you're like, um, uh, I don't want to say goal-oriented.  You're product-oriented.  You're really there.
Amy: Well, we're describing an energy event.  How something happens.
Joe: Okay.  An event.  What is the thing that happens at the end?  What is the last thing?  So it's kind of saying, where does it go?  How do you measure where it, these questions answer what happens at the end. (inaudible)

[00:09:57.03] Alia: And some of 'em aren't, it's gonna be hard to measure.  Some scenarios.  Like take the survey videos.  Um, a person on a bike.  Does the bike have energy without somebody pedaling it?  And that was a question they were pondering.  Well, yeah it does.  Well, yeah it does!  It has thermal energy, the bike does, all by itself.  But they, it was tough for them to wrap their mind it, so they think, okay where does the energy start?  Okay, well, where does it start?  Does it start with a human, you know, or are we just starting with the bike, where do we want to start?

[00:10:32.23] Amy: Right.
Alia: Type of thing.
Joe: Which is why that's the first question.
Alia: So let's say it's the human on the bike.

[00:10:36.04] Amy: (inaudible)
Alia: Cause, like you said, it could go way back, I mean, are we starting with chemical energy, with the process of that's going on in the (inaudible) where energy is being pedaled into the bike.  Or are we looking just at the actual pedals making the bike move.  And the human just happens to be (inaudible).
Amy: (inaudible).

[00:10:57.21] Alia: Yeah.  It kinda, it can get a little bit crazy when you start talking about, okay, where is it gonna start.
Joe: But it also seems like, yeah, some of our.
Alia: Just like (spreads hands) (inaudible).
Joe: Questions around what is, what do you mean by energy event?  What's your definition of event?  Is an event something like this? (Gesturing toward picture on whiteboard)  Or is an event something like [just one little] thing.
Alia: [Process]

[00:11:20.21] Alia: The boat is an event.  This is a process.
Joe: But in the boat event, is an event just the turning of the propeller, or can we broaden the event out? 
Alia: We could.
Joe: Is there a limit to the size of the event?

[00:11:30.23] Alia: There's no limit.  No, uh huh.
Amy: (inaudible) one leg of the journey, the process.
Joe: Oh, one leg.  You really took notes.
Amy: (shrugs shoulders) (inaudible)

[00:11:41.24] Joe: Allright, is there anything else that would need to be?
Alia: (inaudible) he erased all the lists he had up there.
Joe: Oh, we uh.
Amy: It wasn't a straight one-to-one, it was just examples.

[00:11:50.09] Alia: Yeah, I think this is a good, uh.
Joe: So 'how much is there' sort of describes intensity and speed and things like that.  I can't think of what else (inaudible).
Amy: Sound energy.  (inaudible) measure is sound energy.  Say you hit your drum or are playing your guitar, what are different ways we can measure that sound wave?
Joe: Right.

[00:12:18.03] Alia: I don't know, decibels.
Joe: Uh, well you can measure, yeah, decibels.
Amy: (inaudible)
Joe: Well, then, yeah.

[00:12:29.14] Amy: I don't know as much about sound.
Joe: No, well then, the only reason I hesitate is because there's something to change the characteristics of the energy but they don't change its intensity.
Alia: Note the difference between transfers and transformations.  Is it changing from one to another, or is it transferring?
Joe: Yeah, and that has to do with where it goes versus.

[00:12:49.27] Amy: (inaudible) changes forms versus what happens.
Alia: Transfers just means it's moving from one thing to another, but transforming means it's changing, completely changing the form of the energy.
Amy: So let's do one with the playing the guitar.
Joe: So I pluck a string.  Bauyum, right?

[00:13:12.22] Joe: Uh, the scenario is my pick, I'll just draw a really crummy, [here's the guitar] string, here's the pick.
Alia: [So start with the guitar or your hand?]
Joe: So the pick hitting the guitar.
Alia: So starting in the string.  Like, the pick to the string.

[00:13:27.04] Joe: Yeah, the pick just hit the string.  Well, the scenario where the pick comes out of contact with the string.
Alia: Okay, out of contact.
Joe: It sort of pulls it back and lets it go.
Alia: (Reading:) Through what does it move?

[00:13:36.24] Joe: It moves through the string and then through the air as well.
Alia: (Reading:) Where does it go?
Joe: Goes [into the air.]
Alia: [(gesturing) Into the air.]

[00:13:43.09] Joe: Um, it started in the pick.
Alia: (Reading:) Where is the energy at different stages of the journey?
Joe: So it starts as kinetic energy and transforms into sound energy.  How much is there?  It depends on the degree with which I pulled back the string.