Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Wisconsin Milwaukee/Limnology 1 (Fall 2020)

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.

Assignment - Your first edits

Each lake page you'll find in Wikipedia will likely give a number of statistics.  Find a page a examine them.  What are the units?  

In science, as we have discussed, we use SI.  But most American readers will likely better comprehend "English" units (note the irony here...a country that fought a revolution to be free of British rule is now one of the few in the world still using British units...like measuring short distances based on the length of an English King's foot!).

Check the units for your lake page.  If there are English units alone, add SI units.  You can find conversions with a quick Google search, e.g. "convert feet to meters" or "convert acres to hectares".  If there are SI units, double check them...are they correct.

Be careful of Significant Figures/Digits.  Do you understand the concept?  Hint: if I put in "12 feet" Google gives me "3.6576 meters" ...see anything wrong?

Post a short summary of what you found and what you did to the Canvas site Discussion "Editing a Lake for SI units", including a link to what you did.

Assignment - Evaluating and Editing Wikipedia

In class - Discussion

In class - Picking your favorite lake

Guide(s) for writing articles in your topic area

Ecology

Environmental Sciences

Milestones

In class - Begin project research

Assignment - Start drafting your contributions

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Milestones

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

In class - Continue research and writing

In class - Continue research and writing

In class - Continue research and writing

Assignment - Peer review an article

Guiding framework

In class - 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.

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

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!

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!

Milestones

Post an Executive Summary with a link to your page to the Class Discussion.

Milestones

Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.