I loved the questions that were used to introduce one to another in the class. The questions chosen were not the typical questions (i.e background, or age) so I was forced to think on another level unexpectedly. Sid, who sat at table 2, mentioned how her most enjoyable experiences were the ones that required field trips. Her trips were atypical; going to places like Belgium instead of the local zoo. Her comments about the trips moved me because it was a great reminder that learning can be done outside of the classroom. More importantly, she reminded me that learning can be done at anytime and is a 24/7 aspect to life. This made me wonder if the classroom itself can have an impact on how students may learn physics, or any conpect for that matter. Since energy is abstract and the center for all of the sciences, I believe that it can be taught anywhere and with any tool. Furthermore, I am gathering a belief that maybe educators should venture "out of the box" to present the concept of energy to students. Maybe using tools that have never been used (or are barely used) to teach energy can help the way students learn and teachers teach physics.

Another moment that stood out to me within my time of observation was also during the introuduction. Two of the four questions that were asked in the beginning of class were -Why is it important for kids to learn energy and why do people believe that science is hard. I and another lady (I can't remember her name) said that the two questions were somewhat related. We both mentioned how energy is related to all of the sciences. She said that people find science to be difficult because educators seldomly "connect the dots" to learning, or the seldomly go back to the basics of a scientific concept after learning it in an advanced fashion. She recommended that schools (especially college) should go back to the basics after learning an advanced concept to tie everything together. For colleges, she mentioned that college students should have a course at the very end that relates what they have learned in their advanced courses with their courses in the very beginning.

I think that what I will be looking for within the two weeks of observation is how teachers will use their scientific background to present energy to their students. I am also curious to understand how teachers use their scientific background to with explaining energy to help their collegues. I wonder how the teachers will use their backgrounds to "connect to dots".