This is the second part of a two part course examining the basic legal setting for the protection and management of the environment. After learning the major federal statutes and constitutional principles of Environmental Law this course will explore species protection, toxic risk legislation, criminal prosecution, citizen actions, international law and emerging issues in the field. It discusses how environmental law is made and applied. The course also includes material on economic analysis, scientific and legal causation and expert testimony.
Assignment overview
Each student will either contribute a new article or substantially expand an existing article in the area of US Environmental Law, at the national, state, or local level. Students will peer-review and copy-edit one another's contributions and will present on their topic as well as their experience with Wikipedia at the last session. Each student will then submit their work to the professor as a final portfolio.
Create a sandbox and add some sample text in it to get a feel for the wiki code
Make five edits to Wikipedia articles (this can be adding a reference, fixing a typo, cleaning up a convoluted sentence, adding a sentence, etc.)
See the
Getting Started page for how to create an account, username, sandbox and the basics of editing
Session 1
March 19, 2011
In class
Overview of the course
Introduction to the Wikipedia part of the course
Campus Ambassador introduces Wikipedia and Wikipedia culture/etiquette
Basics of editing and how to reference articles
Anatomy of Wikipedia articles, what makes a good article, how to distinguish between good & bad articles
Tips & recommendations for best articles to work on for the class assignments
HANDOUT: "Welcome to Wikipedia" brochure (see resources below for PDF versions of Wikipedia Help Handouts)
Wikipedia Assignment #2(due session 2, April 2nd)
Add your name to the course page's list of students (on the WikiProject)
Contact an
Online Ambassador (via his/her Wikipedia user talk page) and ask them to mentor your article project. Mentors will be available to offer advice and assistance as you start editing.
To practice the editing features of Wikipedia, leave a message for a few classmates on their user talk pages.
Research and list 5 articles on your Wikipedia user page that you will consider working on as your main project. Ask your Online Ambassador mentor for comments.
Help with finding stub or starter articles
For starters, you can look through this category and all of its subcategories:
Here's another way to search: go to this category, and look for any links that are colored dark red. You can adjust the threshold size at which links to articles appear dark red in your preferences (under "Appearance", "Threshold for stub link formatting (bytes)").
Be prepared to discuss a couple of topic ideas in class. You will have an opportunity to discuss your topics with other classmates and pair up with a project partner. Bring some potential sources to class.
HANDOUT: "Moving article from sandbox into main space" handout, "Did You Know nominations" handout (see handouts below).
Wikipedia Assignment #3
Submit article topic on Wikipedia course page by midnight April 5th.
Begin working on your article in your user sandbox or user sub page.
Continue research in preparation for expanding your article (due session 3).
Begin working with Online Ambassador mentor to polish your short starter article (due session 3).
Session 3
April 16, 2011
In class
Campus Ambassador leads Wikipedia lab/workshop.
Uploading images onto Wikipedia articles and introduction to free licenses (see handouts below).
Q&A session.
Wikipedia Assignment #4
Submit outline/starter article by April 19th at midnight.
Move your sandbox article into Wikipedia's main space (live articles). Due by April 26th
Due by May 7th (Session 4)
Begin expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic.
Expand your article into an a comprehensive treatment of the topic.
Peer-review and copy-edit another team's articles:
Leave suggestions and comments on those classmates' article discussion pages.
Revise your article based on peers' feedback.
Prepare for in-class presentation about your Wikipedia-editing experiences and the content of your article.
Session 4
May 7, 2011
In class
Students give in-class presentations about their article topic and their experiences editing Wikipedia.
Ling.Nut(
talk·contribs·count). I can't always commit blocks of time, but am happy to chip in here and there, answer questions, etc. Later! 05:33, 23 March 2011 (UTC)reply
Cindy Ashley-Nelson. Please don't hesitate to contact me. You can catch me online at the oddest hours of the day (or night).
Rosiestep (
talk) 09:23, 1 May 2011 (UTC) I'm arriving here late, but I just saw the email about this and I'd be glad to assist this class. It's easiest to reach me by leaving a note on my user talkpage.reply
Note to Students: You can also pose questions on the
Online Ambassadors Discussion page (remember to create a new section, add an edit description and sign your name with the 4 tildes, i.e., ~~~~).
Visit the
IRC to chat live with Online Ambassadors or other Wikipedians: Campus Ambassador Live Webchat
"Welcome to Wikipedia" gives you a basic introduction into contributing to Wikipedia. You will learn how to create a Wikipedia user account, how to start editing, and how to communicate with other contributors. You will also learn how articles evolve on Wikipedia and how to rate the quality of an existing article. The "Welcome to Wikipedia" brochure contains 17 pages and an additional quick reference that helps you to remember the most frequently used wiki markup commands.
"
Ten Simple Rules for Editing Wikipedia" is an editorial published in PLoS Computational Biology that gives advice for scientists (also relevant to other scholars and experts) on how to effectively contribute to Wikipedia.
Evaluating Wikipedia article quality is a reference guide with specific steps you can take to get the most out of Wikipedia, as well as a look at how its quality system works.
Introduction to free licenses helps you understand the basic concepts of free licenses. It explains the idea of free licenses, as well as terms like "CC-by-SA" and "public domain".
This one-page handout explains the recommended way to get help and feedback for classes supported by Wikipedia Ambassadors: by posting on their course talk page and notifying their mentor. It also includes a glossary of additional help resources students might use.