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As in past Institutes, Paul is modeling the skills/stories/actions/reactions that constitute the goals of the Summer Institute. In each of his sessions, Paul offers the shared story, the science, as perspective. He does so with his words and projected narratives complete with visuals from Serendip. He answers our questions and listens to our examples and restatements of his stories, and in doing so, engages us in the process of co-constructing a story to analyze the roles and interactions in the bipartite brain. Using words and activities, Paul elicits conversation between our unconscious and conscious brain, challenges us to reflect and problem solve in conversation and narrative, and in doing so, illustrates the effectiveness of inquiry based education. His presence is an important part of my unconscious that inputs upon my conscious when I engage with my students in the classroom and in the halls. I suspect that others share my summary because of the many educators that return to the Summer Institutes. More than any other workshops or professional development seminars I have attended, the Summer Institutes with Paul, Wil, and Peter have influenced me as a teacher. Thanks to you and The Howard Hughes Medical Institute for funding these opportunities. The effect your mission and your work have on me as teacher, allows me to model this approach of inquiry as transactional, co-constructive, and respectful for my students, who hopefully make the approach part of their unconscious arsenal of behaviors.

Paul, I would offer only one suggestion for improvement. When you are speaking to us, you carefully choose your words and speak clearly. When you are reading from the projected Serendip narratives, your voice begins to fade to a level that is barely audible. At that level, any ideas additional to the narrative are lost to us. We want to hang onto your every word, so please don’t become “routine” in your speech but remain in “perpetual consciousness” as you speak.