User:Encyclopaedia21

Welcome to my userpage!!!

I am a student from the Faculty of Education in the University of Glasgow, but I have a background in animal biology, ecology and conservation biology. I studied the respiratory behaviour of Humpback whales to whale watching vessels, then I analysed the quality of educational materials made available to tourists going on whale watching. Before coming to Glasgow, I worked for several years with the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners, a project which aims at the development of teaching materials on biodiversity conservation for university teachers in Madagascar.

I have chosen Encyclopaedia21 as username as I am currently doing a PhD on science communication in various printed and online encyclopaedias “for the 21st Century”. My real name is Vanessa Rasoamampianina. For my PhD, I am investigating encyclopaedia contributors’ perspective on how to cover scientific uncertainty and scientific controversy in articles pertaining to global warming and climate change.

As for my involvement in Wikipedia, I just joined. But I really would like to help with the translation of English articles into French or vice versa; though, I have not picked any particular article yet. I am still looking around trying to figure out how Wikipedia works. It is much more complex than I first thought, but hopefully it will not take too long to get familiar with it. Your comments and suggestions would be appreciated… just leave a message on my talk page or email me at encyclopaedia@educ.gla.ac.uk.