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Join us at WikiProject AP Biology 2010 .

Past Projects: Wikipedia:WikiProject AP Biology 2008

Croatan's mascot an interesting choice for a coastal community


A high school class in North Carolina - Croatan High School in Newport, North Carolina - will contribute to Wikipedia until January 15, 2010. The collective goal is to write biology related articles and bring them up to featured article status (or, good article status). This is done as part of an Advanced Placement Biology course. The lead editor is Jimmy Butler. This project is a followup performance of our 2008 efforts. The 2008 Wikipedia AP Biology Project was marked with much success; although there are some modifications that will be incorporated into the 2009 season which should lead to improvements. The primary changes of note will be:

  • Students will work in groups of three as opposed to flying solo.
  • The time frame has been reduced from two semesters down to one semester.
  • Students will be required to write a summary of why they select a topic; hopefully, eliminating obscure, random topic selections.

I have also retired from my supplemental job; hence I will have much more time to devote to this project.

Feel free to discuss this project. Please notify me of any concerns; especially if they involve the behavior of my students on Wikipedia. With a little patience, this should be an inspirational experience for all.

Goals / Motivation

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  • To improve Wikipedia's coverage of selected articles in Biology.
  • To submit these articles to Wikipedia review processes, such as peer review, good article nominations and featured article candidates.
  • To increase the number of featured articles in this area.
  • The dreaded “Research Paper” is a standard hurdle for most AP Programs. Rightfully so, being that many college courses require such publications to validate your existence. As a consequence, I have graded literally hundreds of papers with the same enthusiasm as my students proclaimed during their creation. In the end, they were rewarded for their effort or destroyed for their incompetency; some caught by the highly feared Turnitin.com anti-plagiarism software. The papers themselves merely contributed to our overly bloated landfills. Hence, my excitement over this new approach to constructing a scientific document. Rather than researching for a paper that is destined to the circular bin, let us contribute to the world-wide data base for others to benefit.

Members

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Class Collaborations: Group 1 Topic: Bog turtle
Group 2 Topic: Hypertrichosis
Group 3 Topic: Semicassis granulata <- Scotch Bonnet (shell)
Group 4 Topic: Pudu
Group 5 Topic: Frill-necked Lizard

Articles and groups

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Good articles

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Good article nominations

B-class articles

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C-class articles

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News and Progress

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Templates

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Please place this template in the discussion page of any article that is being worked on as part of this project. It will help the community identify the work carried out by AP Biology 2009. Simply copy and paste into the article's talk page somewhere near the top:

Place this template on the talk page of articles that are granted the FA star:

Planning and resources

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Some information on planning and resources for the AP Biology 2009 Project.

Stages

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  • Start. Get familiar with Wikipedia. Make some trial edits, however minor. Demystify the process. Leave behind any sense of intimidation. As Wikipedia puts it, learn to be bold. Learn basic editing skllls.
  • Plan. But minor edits alone won't get us much closer towards Featured Article status. We need to have a sense of what more needs to be done, and an overall plan for the article. Look at models and guidelines (e.g. guidelines for articles about novels) on how to write good and feature articles. What sections are required? What will be the article structure? What information is needed?
  • Share. We will need to divide up the tasks that we've identified in the planning stage. Who is going to do what and when?
  • Research. This is vital. A Wikipedia article is worth nothing unless it comprises verified research, appropriately referenced. This will entail going to the library, as well as surfing the internet!
  • Assemble and copy-edit. As the referenced research is added to an article, we need to ensure that it does not become baggy and disorganized, though there will be moments when it is obviously in a transitional stage.
  • Informal Review. First, informal reviews among ourselves and consultation with members of the FA-Team.
  • Further Informal Review.

There's no precise order for everything. (Wikipedia doesn't care if you skip everything and go straight for a FA nomination: as long as the article satisifies the criteria.) There's always the need for small, incremental change. But over the course of the project we're looking for radical change, in some cases seeking to create a featured article from scratch. So we need also to be methodical.

And it may turn out that not all articles will be submitted to Featured Article Review. But this should still be our goal!

NB see also what Wikipedia has to say about article development.

Talk pages

Whenever you edit, make sure that you are signed in. Also, add four tildes ~~~~ to the end of all comments you make on talk pages. This will let people know who is talking.

Style guides

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To get past the stumbling blocks of GA and FA, articles will have to conform to the Wikipedia style guides. The three largest barriers are:

Secondary style guide are specific to different projects. Articles must conform to these also. Conflict between any of these is inevitable and troublesome; editors simply have to work out conflicts through consensus.

You can always ask for help at:

Resources

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Policies and guidelines (list)
Principles
Content policies
Conduct policies
Other policy categories
Directories




Mentors

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My deepest appreciation to those who are willing to offer the students assistance on this AP Biology project. It is my intent for the students to be responsible for the lion's share of the content as well as the necessary citations. Formatting, writing style, general organization, and grammar are the areas in which guidance would be greatly appreciated. It's a fine line between assistance and enablement!! I personally like the idea creating a list of concerns and allowing the students to address the problems. I'm confident a balance can be achieved that assures this is a learning process for the students and that they will feel a sense of accomplishment when the project ends.
I trust that the students will conduct themselves in an appropriate manner and at no time will their behavior be problematic. They do understand that their actions reflect on the class and school and they are being held accountable. Should any concerns arise, please contact me through the email option. I am very excited about the prospect of my students working with the brilliant and dedicated members of the Wikipedia community. This is an incredible learning opportunity for which I am most grateful. Please note, some of them are rather nervous and have considerable self-doubt. In time, they will overcome ... just a little patience!
There will be no formal "pairing" of students with mentors; it seemed to have a natural flow during the 2008 Project, dependent on the topic and personalities of the authors. Feel free to introduce yourself and offer assistance on their user pages or the article talk pages as the topic list develops and they begin to edit.

Articles from the 2008 Project

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These articles were adopted by the AP biology class 2008-2009 as either stubs or poorly written start class articles and were elevated to the status listed below.

Articles and groups

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Good articles

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B-class articles

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Notes

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Show at own risk.
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

This serves as the bucket described in Wiki -AP Bio 2008. It's where I piss and moan without offending anyone. Actually, it is a place to keep my notes for future improvements or perhaps as take-it or leave-it feedback for other educators which I hope will follow.

You go back Jack, and do it again... wheels turning round and round.

  • Groups Assignment. It was random. I pulled their names out of a beaker - letting the Wiki-Gods decide. I was secretly pulling for a distribution that would mix my senior students with the underclassmen. It played out rather well in that regard. The motivation for groups was slightly selfish. It would allow me and our volunteers to keep up with the overwhelming number of edits and exchanges that take place. This year we start with 5 topics; last year there were 24. Fewer papers to grade!
  • Topic Selection - so much rides on this decision. The amount of guidance has been incredible. The use of community feedback of their rationale is perhaps the best change to the project to date. The only problem - a big one - is getting three people to achieve a consensus. In some cases I think they may have all agreed on a topic that no one felt a passion, simply out of frustration. I foresee some internal bickering in our future as a consequence. "I didn't want to do this one anyway". I truly don't want to give the a list ... banker horse - phagocytosis - random topics without my guidance which struck a cord with the editors. Who knows what floats these buggers boat!?
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