ABSTRACT : The inspiration for this paper was a retreat in which education students and professors spent a weekend at a forest preserve, conducting biodiversity studies. Our writing describes the power of our retreat as a scientific, social and pedagogical learning experience. The three authors present our written reflections individually, prefaced by a description of the retreat setting. We place our reflections in an exploration of conversation in science teacher education as a way to help our students and ourselves connect more deeply and educatively to each other and to other living things.