I’m working on the final illustrations for the Learning Science Guidebook this week: some are ‘informational’ to portray the content in a clearly sequenced manner, and others are more about aesthetics, to make the book beautiful. The latter of which has been something of a challenge. If i am to avoid the obvious analogies of brains, cogs, test tubes and bespectacled scientists, i will have to come up with a creative cover solution.
This illustration will sit right at the front, and really sets out the purpose of the book: to guide the reader on a journey, to understand how science works, and to make a material step forward in our personal professional practice.
Few of us can hope to become experts in every field of science, and most of us have busy day jobs that take up most of our time, so this work has be be both interesting, but also highly practical and hence pragmatic.
The key aspects of learning are to hold a simple language about ‘how science works’, to understand the scientific process, and how it ensures validity. To understand just what a vast range of areas are explored under the banner of ‘Learning Science’, and then to accept that our personal focus must necessarily be narrower. To really build a confident view of validity, how evidence is best used, and how we measure everything. And to leave the book with a clearly stated view of our personal scientific discipline.
I hope to have this work completed in January, to be published in Q1 this year.
julianstodd