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- Course name
- Ecological Methods
- Institution
- North Carolina Wesleyan University
- Instructor
- Ami Thompson
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Ecology
- Course dates
- 2022-08-24 00:00:00 UTC – 2022-11-16 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 10
Ecology Methods (Bio 402) is a writing intensive lab course that accompanies the Ecology lecture (Bio 401). These courses tie together the many skills that you have learned during your career here at NCWU and will begin to prepare you for your next career steps.
This course combines hands-on experience with ecology field techniques, analyzing methods critically reading ecology papers, and applying this knowledge by conducting a class experiment, and finally writing a scientific paper based on the class experiment.
While learning to write a scientific paper is a foundational experience for all students of ecologisty, only students who go to graduate school will likely find themselves writing additional papers for peer review and publication.
Equally important are scientific communication writing skills - those are the skills used to translate and summarize knowledge expressed within peer reviewed journals for non-scientist audiences. Students who do not intend to enter graduate school will likely find themselves writing for science communication - summarizing the work of others, and not to express the results of their own experiments.
This WikiEdu project focuses on building those science communication skills - giving students practice finding and evaluating sources, and then summarizing and editing content to communicate that science knowledge to the general public.
Timeline
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 7 September 2022
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia assignment
Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces.
Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.
Resources:
- Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia
Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 14 September 2022
- Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia
- Assignment - Discussion
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 21 September 2022
- Assignment - Choose possible topics
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 6
- Discussion
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 28 September 2022
- Assignment - Make a small edit
- Assignment - Finalize your topic and find sources
- Assignment - Start drafting your contributions
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9
- Guide(s) for writing articles in your topic area
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 5 October 2022
- Assignment - Peer review two articles
- Discussion
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
- Assignment - Respond to your peer review
You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. Consider their suggestions, decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes.
Resources:
- Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
- Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 12 October 2022
- Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia
Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the "mainspace."
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 19 October 2022
- Assignment - Continue improving your article
Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and other media.
- Assignment - Polish your work
Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 26 October 2022
- Assignment - Final article
It's the final week to develop your article.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
- Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!
- Assignment - Reflective essay
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.