Student-written Wikipedia articles compiled in textbook for future classmates
This term, Dr. David Webster is trying something new. “This year’s textbook [is] written by previous years’ students,” he announced over Twitter, much to the excitement of his followers. Dr. Webster has taught his students at Bishop University how to contribute to Wikipedia as a classroom assignment for a few terms now. In his Spring 2016 course, Memory, truth … Continued
Four reasons why psychology students should improve Wikipedia
In 2016, Dr. Eric Youngstrom’s students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill learned how to improve Wikipedia articles as a class assignment. That term, a group of students improved the article about sleep disorders, adding a section about the use of melatonin as a possible treatment. As research shows, melatonin pills can help people fall … Continued
Roundup: African Archaeology
For all of his swagger and bravado, Indiana Jones makes a terrible archaeologist. With all due apologies to Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg, Indiana was always slightly more interested in the treasure and his fetching female companions than he was with the “who, what, when, where, how, and why” of the historical sites he visited … Continued
The Roundup: Science behind the scares
Are you one of the many people celebrating Halloween with a horror movie night? A lot of our favorite creepy suspense films feature unnatural deaths — but how much do you know about the science behind the thrills? Dr. Katie McEwen’s Autopsy class at Michigan State University set out to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of articles … Continued
98% of instructors would teach with Wikipedia again
If you teach with Wikipedia once, you’ll want to do it again. At least, that’s the case for respondents of our Spring 2016 end-of-term survey. We ask instructors in our programs for feedback at the end of every term. Every time, we hear that the majority want to teach with us again, and this term … Continued
Bugging Wikipedia: Opening up insect ecology
Dr. Chelse Prather assigned students to write Wikipedia articles as part of her “Insects and Society” course at Radford University. In this post, she discusses the design of that course, and the benefits it brought to her students. Insects affect human daily life in both positive and negative ways. Most humans are not conscious of … Continued
The Roundup: Behind a glass of water
Many California restaurants won’t automatically bring water to your table. Signs dot college campuses apologizing for brown grass. It’s all part of a plan to tackle California’s historic drought. Understanding local water supplies is more important than ever. That’s why we’re so impressed by the work of students in Dr. Julian Fulton’s ENVS 110 Course … Continued
How Geobiology came to Wikipedia
We hear many stories of scientists visiting Wikipedia, only to find that knowledge related to their field is missing. A chemist may find certain compounds don’t have an article; a zoologist is likely to find a species of bird isn’t well described. That’s one of the things that inspired us to focus so much energy … Continued
UPitt Visiting Scholar is opening access to women’s health information
The miracle of Wikipedia is that it has been assembling the world’s knowledge for 15 years, all of it contributed from volunteers. It is not only a collection of the world’s knowledge, then, but a reflection of the world’s passions. This can, however, tie Wikipedia’s content to leisure. For many, contributing to Wikipedia is a … Continued
The Roundup: Dinosaur science
Wikipedia is the perfect medium for communicating a joy for science. Every spark of curiosity leads to a new question, and Wikipedia offers paths for a mind to wander. When we saw that there was a class about dinosaurs, we got pretty excited. There’s something compelling about giant, “terrible lizards” roaming the planet. We all … Continued