User:It's-for-class

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About Me
Hi, I am a second-year college student who is participating in online school in the US and is volunteering on Wikipedia with the rest of my English 101 class. Online college has become popular because the Covid-19 pandemic, but for years now online courses have been helping millions of students achieve their college goals. I have a wide range of interests and hobbies that I have varying levels of knowledge in. Some of these interests include creative writing, knitting, sewing and I recently began to learn computer coding. I look forward to contributing information about the topics I know the best like equine activities and clay potting.

My Wikipedia Interests
As my username states I did make this page for a college class assignment, but I do look forward to helping to break some of the stigma around Wikipedia as a reputable source. I have had a lot of teachers growing up tell me that Wikipedia was not a reliable source because anyone could edit it. Due to this, I think it will be a positive experience to learn more about the website and help redefine Wikipedia into a resource that can be confidently used in an academic setting.

Article Evaluation
For my article evaluation I decided to use the Wikipedia article on the high school I graduated from. After researching it I thought it would be the right kind of article to use for this project. I visited the Glacier Peak High School article on Wikipedia, and found three aspects of it worth commenting on: the age and reliability of information, the bias towards the arts department, and the incomplete history of the school.

In the Glacier Peak High School Wikipedia page there is a total of four citations. There are three citations in the references section of the webpage; one is dated from May 2021, another from September 2008 and the last one is a dead Wikilink from August 2008. There is also a recent citation in the Alumni section that came from July 2nd 2021. This is also the last date that the Wikipedia page has been edited. The information that is subject to change like important staff is also up to date. The Glacier Peak High School Wikipedia article has been updated over the years with new information and reliable citations, but there is a large gap of time between citations where the article was potentially incorrect. The current information and data seem to be relatively accurate because of the time of the last update.

Like most schools, Glacier Peak High School has multiple departments and programs for students, but their Wikipedia page only includes the arts department. In this Wiki description, this focus shows an over-representation and a clear bias towards the Glacier Peak arts department by ignoring the existence of the many other education departments like language, physical education or science. Also, the information on the art programs has no sources or citations. This means the information about the arts department might not even be accurate. Glacier Peak is not specifically an arts high school, so the inclusion of only the arts program in the Wikipedia page demonstrates clear bias for the arts programs within the school. The lack of major events or achievements in the description of Glacier Peak High School’s history compromises the completeness of the Wikipedia article.

There is no section for the history for the Glacier Peak High School on the Wikipedia page, but a brief description of the school origins is provided. This history is detailed and correct, the information has attached dates, Wikilinks and citations. Past the original building of the school, there is no information about any notable events or history. With a search about the high school, I found many news articles about the happenings of the school, including this headline from Q 13 Fox, “Glacier Peak High School in Snohomish evacuated after bomb threat found”. Events within a school that are big enough to make it into large news sources should be acknowledged as important events in a school’s history. Notable events or achievements should be included into the Wikipedia description of Glacier Peak High School because of their importance to the school’s history.

Overall, The Glacier Peak High School Wikipedia page is correct, but lacking information. The details provided about the school are up-to-date and the majority of the citations are accurate. There is a bias in favor of the arts department because there is no inclusion of any other department at the school. Lastly, there is an accurate explanation about the school’s origins, but no information about any major events in the school’s history.