Throughout the process of initiating, developing, and nurturing Science Education at the Crossroads, John and I have always had a playful attitude about what we're doing. The traditional experimental method and mindset isn't really what we've been doing. Rather, we've had the attitude more on the lines of two kids at the beach, building sand castles. We've had a long tradition of creating the things that we could with our own four hands, catering to our own sense of aesthetics, and satisfying our own sense of need. Whatever we didn't like we'd simply stomp on or let the tide wash away. The pieces that we've enjoyed and found valuable we continue to build up.
Lately, however, we've been discovering and admitting to ourselves that we have to look beyond our own sensibilities, even if we have a sense that things are working pretty well. This has led to one conference paper (in addition to many others already presented on the practicalities of Crossroads), an upcoming op-ed piece, and an ongoing book project. We realize that we need to document what we're doing and figure out the reasons why things are going well. Otherwise, we have nothing to present other than just a nice story about our own little provincial undertaking.
I think that's why I'm starting this thread as well. In one sense, having a place to jot down occasional ideas and outcomes is useful, sometimes even therapeutic, as it allows for very brief entries that may not end up going anywhere else. Additionally, and more to the point, it's a foray into something we're going to be pushing Crossroads participants to do for themselves, for the group, and for us. We want to document what it is that all Crossroad-ians are doing with their Ventures, how they get implemented (or not), morphed, grown, and the like.
This is our way of leading by example. More details about where this will lead are yet to come.
