User:Colleenlu/Evaluate an Article

Caterpillar
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose the topic of caterpillars because studying insects that undergo metamorphosis can help researchers investigate the development of animals. As a result, researchers can relate these findings to human physiology. Before caterpillars can be used in a research lab, background knowledge must be gathered in order to design experiments. My preliminary impression of the article was that it includes an extensive amount of both scientific and nonscientific information about caterpillars. However, both types of information is important for determining whether a caterpillar is a good model system for research.

Evaluate the article

(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

The article contains relevant and up-to-date information regarding caterpillars. The beginning stages of metamorphosis is missing and can be added to the article. In addition, the authors can also provide a more in-depth description of the insect's physiology, including information about their cardiovascular system, respiratory system, etc. The article mentions how caterpillars are represented in different cultures, therefore it does not have any notable equity gaps. One way in which the article can be improved is to relocate the first image on the article. This image shows a camouflaged caterpillar, and I believe it would be more useful to put this image where camouflage is mentioned. As suggested before, an added section on physiological organ systems can be added to also improve the article.

After assessing the tone, I believe that the article is not heavily biased. The authors describe many different types of caterpillars, therefore these caterpillars were equally represented.

All of the citation links that I checked worked, and the citations support the information in the article. The majority of sources come from research articles, which are reliable and neutral sources. These research articles also come from different authors and journals.

On the talk page, individuals are contemplating about adding a section regarding the evolution of caterpillars. In addition, other individuals are suggesting photos to add. The article is rated as B-class and is part of the WikiProject Lepidoptera. Wikipedia discusses the topic differently from our class because they solely talk about caterpillars. On the other hand, our class relates insects to other organisms. In addition, our class also studies the genetics behind phenotypes, however the Wikipedia article does not go into depth about this topic.