User:MMBiology/Neurobiology

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Course name
Neurobiology
Institution
Marquette University
Instructor
Michelle Mynlieff
Subject
Biology
Course dates
2015-01-12 – 2015-04-24
Approximate number of student editors
55


Neurobiology (BIOL3501) is a 3-credit lecture course at Marquette University designed to provide an introduction to the study of the nervous system. The course will consider the structure and function of the nervous system from the molecular and cellular levels to the systems level. The course will cover basic signaling mechanisms, sensory systems, and motor systems. The overall goal of the course is to provide students with an appreciation of the current state of knowledge in neurobiology and an adequate background for further study in the field. As part of the course students will participate in a Wikipedia assignment to improve and expand a neuroscience stub.




Wikipedia Assignment[edit]

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone. Our course is part of the Wikipedia Education Program consisting of professors using Wikipedia in their classrooms. The Society for Neuroscience has set a priority to expand and enhance neuroscience content on Wikipedia (Wikipedia:Wikiproject Neuroscience). The organization has identified a list of neuroscience stubs category:neuroscience stubs that are in need of improvement and expansion. For this assignment, groups of 3-4 students will work together on a single neuroscience stub with the goal to bring it up to the quality of a good article. The learning objectives of this assignment are:

  1. Increase scientific writing skills
  2. Improve critical thinking and research skills
  3. Foster the ability to work in a collaborative environment
  4. Gain in depth knowledge in a small area of neuroscience

There are many resources to get your started on Wikipedia:

In addition, since your topic is likely to be related to medicine, it is important that you read the [1]Wikipedia brochure on how to edit medical articles.

You must create a username prior to beginning the assignment in order to receive any credit for the work that you do. The username does not need to be your real name if you prefer not to have it public but I will ask you to provide it to me for class. When creating an account, be sure to include an email address. This will not be visible to other users. It will be used in case you need to retrieve your password. It will also be possible for others to email you without knowing your email address and is necessary to receive notifications from Wikipedia. When working on any portion of the class, you must log into your account to receive credit. If you do any page editing or contributions to talk pages without logging in, I will not be to see it. You should also sign any contributions to talk pages.

Please use your sandbox or a private user subpage (Wikipedia:Subpages) to work on edits before making them live. Do not create another mainspace Wikipedia page separate from your user account to practice editing or to claim a topic.

Article selection[edit]

There is an entire listing of neuroscience stubs [2], biophysics stubs [3], and disease stubs [4] that you can look through. Your topic should be classified as a stub, start, or C class on Wikipedia. If you are using a C class article, your task will consist of extensive editing rather than necessarily starting from scratch.

Once you have identified a topic, do a literature search to ensure that you can find sufficient secondary sources for the topic. The topic must be submitted to the professor for approval.

Reviews[edit]

As part of the assignment each student must act as a primary reviewer on one article and a secondary reviewer on two articles. The specific instructions for the reviews can be found at user:MMBiology/Review instructions.

Grades[edit]

The assignment will be graded on a 100 point scale according to the provided rubric (user:MMBiology/grading rubric).

Important points to remember[edit]

Please remember that this is a “public” assignment where you are representing Marquette University. It is imperative that you follow the Wikipedia guidelines.

Timeline[edit]

Week 1 (2015-01-12): Wikipedia essentials[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 12 January 2015   |   Wednesday, 14 January 2015   |   Friday, 16 January 2015
Discussion
  • Overview of the course
  • Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
  • Wikipedia is a community: a brief overview of its rules, expectations, and etiquette
  • Anatomy of Wikipedia articles, what makes a good article, how to distinguish between good and bad articles
  • Collaborating and engaging with the Wiki editing community
  • Tips on finding the best articles to work on for class assignments
  • Handouts: Editing Wikipedia (available in print or online from the Wiki Education Foundation)Using Talk Pages handout and Evaluating Wikipedia brochure

Week 2 (2015-01-19): Wikipedia essentials continued[edit]

Course meetings
Wednesday, 21 January 2015   |   Friday, 23 January 2015
Discussion
  • Overview of the course
  • Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
  • Wikipedia is a community: a brief overview of its rules, expectations, and etiquette
  • Anatomy of Wikipedia articles, what makes a good article, how to distinguish between good and bad articles
  • Collaborating and engaging with the Wiki editing community
  • Tips on finding the best articles to work on for class assignments
  • Handouts: Editing Wikipedia (available in print or online from the Wiki Education Foundation)Using Talk Pages handout and Evaluating Wikipedia brochure
Assignment (due January 26)
  • Create an account and then complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
  • Enroll in the course by clicking the "enroll" button on the top left of this course page.
  • To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself on the user talk page of one of your classmates, who should also be enrolled in the table at the bottom of the page.
  • Explore topics related to your topic area to get a feel for how Wikipedia is organized. What areas seem to be missing? As you explore, make a note of articles that seem like good candidates for improvement. Use the "choosing an article" handout for guidance. Submit three potential article topics to the instructor.
Milestones
  • All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.

Week 3 (2015-01-26): Learning about sources and research[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 26 January 2015   |   Wednesday, 28 January 2015   |   Friday, 30 January 2015
Discussion
Assignment (due January 30th)
  • Write a paragraph on your user page including links and an image.
  • Read through this brochure on evaluating Wikipedia articles, especially pages 4-7. This will give you a good, brief overview of what to look for in other articles, and what other people will look for in your own.

Week 4 (2015-02-02): Group assignment and choosing articles[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 2 February 2015   |   Wednesday, 4 February 2015   |   Friday, 6 February 2015
Discussion
Assignment (due Week 5)


For next week
  • Instructor evaluates student's article selections, by next week.

Week 5 (2015-02-09): Finalizing topics and starting research[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 9 February 2015   |   Wednesday, 11 February 2015   |   Friday, 13 February 2015
Discussion
  • Finalize your topics with your teammates and plan how you will approach the assignment.
Assignment (due Week 6)
  • Add your article to the class’s course page.
  • Mark your article's talk page with a banner to let other editors know you're working on it. Add this code in the top section of the talk page:
{{course assignment | course = User:MMBiology/Neurobiology | term = Spring 2015 }}
  • Compile a bibliography of relevant, reliable sources and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on. You should have at least 3 secondary sources for your topic. Begin reading the sources. Make sure to check in on the talk page (or watchlist) to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.
  • If you are working on a stub or start article, write an outline of the topic in your sandbox. If your topic is medical in nature, check out WP:MEDSECTIONS for ideas on the organization. You should have the subheadings that you believe you will use in the article and begin to work on you lead section using the Wikipedia guide (standard Wikipedia lead section). Wikipedia articles use "summary style", in which the lead section provides a balanced summary of the entire body of the article, with the first sentence serving to define the topic and place it in context. The lead section should summarize, very briefly, each of the main aspects of the topic that will be covered in detail in the rest of the article. If you are improving an existing article with a fair amount of information present, draft a new lead section reflecting your proposed changes, and post this along with a brief description of your plans on the article’s talk page. Make sure to check that page often to gather any feedback the community might provide.
  • Begin working with classmates and other editors to polish your lead section and fix any major issues.
  • Continue research in preparation for writing the body of the article.
Milestones
  • All students have started editing articles or drafts on Wikipedia.

Week 6 (2015-02-16): Drafting starter articles[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 16 February 2015   |   Wednesday, 18 February 2015   |   Friday, 20 February 2015
In class
  • Set up meeting with instructor to go over work plan.

Week 7 (2015-02-23): Continue working on article[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 23 February 2015   |   Wednesday, 25 February 2015   |   Friday, 27 February 2015
In class
Assignment (due Week 8)
  • Continue to work on article with your team expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic.

Week 8 (2015-03-02): Continue working on article[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 2 March 2015   |   Wednesday, 4 March 2015   |   Friday, 6 March 2015
Assignment (due Week 9)
  • Continue to work on article with your team expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic.

Week 9 (2015-03-09): Spring Break[edit]

Week 10 (2015-03-16): Getting ready to finalize the first draft[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 16 March 2015   |   Wednesday, 18 March 2015   |   Friday, 20 March 2015
Discussion
  • Meet with instructor for a progress report.
Assignment (due March 23rd, 10 AM)
  • Move your article into a sandbox by March 23rd at the latest for review.
  • Post on the talk page of the course Wikipedia page where your article is located on Wikipedia so that our Wikipedia Editors can find them easily.
  • Upload your article into the Dropbox on D2L to check for plagiarism. The document should be in .doc, .docx or .pdf format.

Week 11 (2015-03-23): Review classmates[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 23 March 2015   |   Wednesday, 25 March 2015   |   Friday, 27 March 2015
In class
  • Review assignments will be distributed.
Assignment (due March 30, 10AM)


  • Make any necessary changes to your article as suggested by the Wikipedia reviewers or to fix any plagiarism issues.
  • Move article in the mainspace by March 30, 2015.
    • If you are expanding an existing article, copy your edit into the article. If you are making many small edits, save after each edit before you make the next one. Do NOT paste over the entire existing article, or large sections of the existing article.
    • If you are creating a new article, do NOT copy and paste your text, or there will be no record of your work history. Follow these instructions on how to move your work.
  • Begin your primary and secondary reviews.
Milestones
  • Each team has published their article in the main space.


Week 12 (2015-03-30): Continuing to improve articles[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 30 March 2015   |   Wednesday, 1 April 2015   |   Friday, 3 April 2015
Assignment (due April 13th)
  • Continue to do your reviews.
  • Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on your classmates' suggestions and any additional areas for improvement you can identify.

Week 13 (2015-04-06): Continuing to improve articles[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 6 April 2015   |   Wednesday, 8 April 2015   |   Friday, 10 April 2015
Assignment (due April 13th)
  • Finalize reviews.
  • Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on your classmates' suggestions and any additional areas for improvement you can identify.
Milestones
  • Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

Week 14 (2015-04-13): Finishing touches[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 13 April 2015   |   Wednesday, 15 April 2015   |   Friday, 17 April 2015
Assignment (due April 24th)
  • Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on your classmates' suggestions and any additional areas for improvement you can identify.
  • Make edits to your article based on peers’ feedback. If you disagree with a suggestion, use talk pages to politely discuss and come to a consensus on your edit.
  • Add final touches to your Wikipedia article. You can find a handy reference guide here.
Milestones
  • Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

Week 15 (2015-04-20): Due date[edit]

Course meetings
Monday, 20 April 2015   |   Wednesday, 22 April 2015   |   Friday, 24 April 2015
Milestones
  • Make edits to your article based on peers’ feedback. If you disagree with a suggestion, use talk pages to politely discuss and come to a consensus on your edit.
  • Add final touches to your Wikipedia article. You can find a handy reference guide here.
  • Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading by April 24th.

Grading[edit]

The assignment will be graded on a 100 point scale according to the provided rubric (user:MMBiology/grading rubric).

  5%  
   Account set up, training, message on talk page, and userpage paragraph
  10%  
   Outline
  70%  
   Article
  15%  
   Peer reviews
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