All self-respecting scientists know that there are four laws of thermodynamics; zeroth, first, second and third. Although all four laws are equally important and interesting, the first law is by far the best: Energy can never be created nor destroyed, it can only be transformed. It has such an eloquent flow to it that I begin to put my life into perspective and feel an inner strength when reading it. Let me put my feelings in perspective; It’s that same feeling you experience when you go outside at midnight, somewhere far away from the city lights and look up and see every star, ever. Each star blesses your face with an unparalleled amount of light and you just feel small but strangely important to the point where you begin to realize your role in the universe.
This fundamental idea of energy can mean something different to every person you meet. A physicist may assume energy to be in the form of kinetics, a chemist attributes energy typically to wavelengths, a yoga instructor will not call it energy, but will call it prana, moving through your body, and a teacher may understand energy as a student’s aptitude to not sit still in class. Energy wears many hats in our world, and somehow we are not able to create it nor destroy it, merely transform it.
Scientifically speaking, energy lends itself to two major phenomena; exothermic and endothermic reactions. Since not all college students are required to indulge themselves in entry-level collegiate science courses (thankfully there’s no Common Core at the college level), we will review the definitions of these reactions. Exothermic reactions release energy as a product while endothermic reactions require energy as a reactant. Great. Now we have some idea how the first law of thermodynamics works; some processes of life require energy while the other processes release energy.
Example time. Waking up and getting out of bed to start my day requires coffee, my source of energy. This is the example of me being an endothermic reaction, requiring an energy source to get me moving. When I get to school and begin to participate in my classes, I produce conversation. I produce energy in the form of thought; I release my energy as a scholar. It’s a small illustration of this idea of conservation of energy, turning coffee into chemical knowledge and conversation.
I am effectively able to think like a scientist, pretty much all the time (I’m so super fun to hang out with) I like to apply it to my educational philosophy and pedagogy as a teacher. The first law of teaching is to always assume that the students know nothing and to start from the absolute bottom. Trust me, the students will always let you know if they have learned the material before. Not only do I take this first law of teaching to heart but I also like to assume that the students have no interest in the subject whatsoever. So, not only do I have to start from stage one content wise, I also have to bring the fire, passion, and interest in every lesson. As you can probably guess, it’s not too hard to get me psyched about science and chemistry. This puts me in a great place to give off my passion, my energy, to my students. Since anything that gives off energy must be an exothermic reaction, we can assume that teaching is an exothermic action. Releasing energy into a chemical system will typically be reciprocated by a system that takes energy. In my classroom system, my reciprocal energy consumers are my students which take the content I spew, and the passion I bring and convert it into knowledge, interest, and conversation. This idea, the first law of classroom-dynamics, is a fundamental principle that almost every teacher does, whether they understand the science behind it or not.
By following the first law of classroom dynamics, students are given an opportunity to process and convert knowledge into intelligence. To succeed in a transfer of learning and to find out who they are. Such to the fact that when the student finds themselves out on a mountain underneath a blanket of stars, they too will know their place in our universe.
