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Trip to Japan, 2003
Day 4, 2003/03/22
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Up very early to meet our bus: we pick up everyone in our hotel and head down the block to pick up others from the Best Western and join the other busses, then head up the George Washington Parkway (along the Potomac) to Bethesda, MD and Walter Johnson High School. A beautiful drive: the trees have not yet started to leaf out, so we can see many of the houses along both banks of the river. The Potomac is rather full, the result of the 3+ inches of rain we got on Thursday. |
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We arrive at Walter Johnson to find a substantial Continental breakfast awaiting us: muffins, pastries, bagels, fruit, and orange juice. Coffee is a bit delayed; turns out the electrical outlet has blown a fuse. After transferring the pots to another circuit, the coffee is finished and people begin to wake up. |
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Our morning session begins with remarks from a representative of the Japanese Embassy, and include a keynote discussion about global community building through technology by the Jones', and a panel discussion about community building that includes U.S., Japanese, and MTP participants. |
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Lunch is interesting, made-to-order omelets with your choice of ingredients. Translation time again; fortunately, it doesn't take long to identify such things as smoked salmon, caviar, and peppers (salsa and spinach, on the other hand, take a bit more explaining). There is salad and more pastries and a choice of beverages. |
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After lunch, we hear summary presentations of papers written by 4 past MTP participants (2 Japanese, 2 Americans) describing what they have gained or accomplished during their MTP experiences. Then we move to some break-out sessions; Terry attends the discussion on Fast Plants, and Rita and I attend the technology and global community building sessions. |
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Ed Jones is leading the latter; he starts us off with an interesting small group exercise, asking us to describe how we might genetically engineer the perfect human. Each group has a slightly different set of answers, but the overall concensus is that too much engineering is not a good thing since it would likely lead to the end of diversity. After listening to the responses, Ed reminds us that we, as teachers, are actually involved in a little bit of "genetic" engineering as we teach our students, and that we must keep that in mind as we work with them. |
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The afternoon ends with a short Q&A session with some students from Walter Johnson High School, who then take those who are interested on a short tour of the building. |
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After we board the busses for the trip back to the hotels, FMF staff give us further information about security requirements at the two airports from which we will all be leaving tomorrow. It would appear that the shuttle service did indeed know what they were talking about; suggested arrival times are 3 hours before takeoff at Dulles, and 2-1/2 hours before takeoff at Reagan. Everyone agrees that an early night is in order; I set my alarm clock for 4:30 AM and head for bed. |
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