3.9 KiB

Raw Blame History

SciSiteForge Notebooks

A SciSiteForge notebook is a topic-level study module. It is smaller than a full learner application and more structured than a list of cards.

Use a notebook when a site needs to connect:

a concept or claim
one or more interactive apps or labs
recovered source documents
grounded knowledge and provenance
guided-study concepts
citations or bibliography updates

Role in the Ecosystem

The notebook pattern is intentionally generic:

doclift rescues and normalizes legacy documents.
GroundRecall provides grounded concepts, claims, observations, and provenance.
Didactopus provides learner-facing concepts, prerequisites, pathways, and review-oriented packs.
CiteGeist provides bibliography and literature-update material.
SciSiteForge renders a static site shell that can present those artifacts in a coherent topic module.

SciSiteForge should not take over the job of those systems. It should render their outputs in a predictable static format.

Notebook Shape

In a site config, a notebook looks like this:

{
  "notebooks": [
    {
      "id": "evidence-and-claims",
      "title": "Evidence and Claims Notebook",
      "summary": "Connect claims, evidence, source material, and citations.",
      "audience": "self-learners and instructors",
      "goals": [
        "Move from a claim to relevant evidence",
        "Expose provenance and review status",
        "Connect source documents to guided study"
      ],
      "apps": [
        {
          "title": "Public search",
          "href": "/search/",
          "description": "Search across related corpora"
        }
      ],
      "source_kinds": ["section", "notebook", "app", "bibliography"],
      "max_items": 8
    }
  ]
}

The build system renders each notebook as:

title and summary
audience note
goals
app/lab links
selected study material from loaded content sources

Content Sources

Notebook study material is selected from the loaded content_sources.

Recommended mapping:

doclift_bundle: recovered legacy readings and source documents
groundrecall_bundle: concepts, claims, observations, and provenance
didactopus_pack: guided concepts and prerequisite structure
bibliography: CiteGeist bibliography entries

The first implementation uses the existing card stream and filters by source_kinds. That keeps the model simple while preserving room for richer notebook manifests later.

evo-edu.org Pattern

For evo-edu.org, notebooks should frame a learning pathway around:

an app or lab, such as Avida-ED or an ecology/fitness landscape tool
the concept sequence needed to use the tool well
common misconceptions and review prompts
source readings or curriculum fragments
bibliography support for instructors or deeper learners

This supports the current evo-edu direction: lab, atlas, and guided study in one coherent site.

TalkOrigins Pattern

For the TalkOrigins modernization proof-of-concept, notebooks should frame:

a claim or topic
relevant Index to Creationist Claims entries
stable Archive articles
Panda's Thumb or TalkDesign context when appropriate
bibliography updates and provenance

This fits the static/dynamic split: stable archive material remains stable, while notebook pages can provide a modern guided route through it.

Panda's Thumb Pattern

For Panda's Thumb, notebooks should work as topic dossiers:

a recurring topic or controversy
MT-era authoritative posts where available
scraped-corpus posts for later years
related Index to Creationist Claims material
citations and source trails

The notebook should identify provenance clearly when the same topic is covered by multiple corpora.

Design Rule

Keep notebooks static, reviewable, and source-aware. If a workflow needs learner state, mastery ledgers, evaluator behavior, or interactive mentoring, that belongs in Didactopus. SciSiteForge should publish the durable study surface.

3.9 KiB Raw Blame History