Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Behavioral Ecology (Joan Strassmann)/Assignment 3

WikiProject Assignment 3 Behavioral Ecology, Biology 372, Teacher: Strassmann, TAs: Adu-Oppong, Scott, Sukhum

In this assignment you will add 5 references and 500 words to an existing Wikipedia entry. Alternatively, you can begin a new entry. Each person does their own independent assignment. Only after they are done does the rest of the team check the work. This is not a group assignment. However you can talk with each other to help you decide what to work on.

When is it due? Tuesday, 17 September 2013 11:59 PM

What is it worth? It is worth 100 points out of the 600 total for the entire Wikipedia assignment.

What exactly do I turn in? You turn in a document on Blackboard named Wiki17Sept with the following: 1. Your name. 2. The honor code. 3. Names of others in your group (one or two names), and what they did on your paper. 4. Your topic, including chapter in Davies, Krebs, West, specific topic, and organism. 5. Links to your Wikipedia entry. 6. A paragraph describing exactly how you exercised your fact checking, writing, or Wikipedia expertise. If asked, you should be prepared to provide further documentation on this, so save copies of edited work or similar. (20 points). 7. Paste into the document your 500-word entry along with the 5 references (80 points).

What do I do? In this first assignment you will begin to use your expertise in behavioral ecology to improve Wikipedia. Focus on the entry of a single organism under the WikiProject that you have chosen. The organism that you choose should have information in the literature on how it exhibits the kinds of behaviors discussed in your chapter. You should discuss what exactly the animal does that is of interest and why they have evolved to do it. Remember to follow the general format of Wikipedia with lots of headings. I looked for good examples and did not find them. Even iconic animals like Florida scrub jays and Beldings ground squirrels do not have good entries. I will be delighted if you can add meaningful behavior to this important source.

Should I add headings in the Wikipedia entry? Yes. Wikipedia prefers relatively short chunks of text, 200 to 600 words, it seems. Headings are key to helping readers navigate through the page. You should also be sure to keep the outline at the beginning of the entry up to date, reflecting any new headings you have added. What I really want to see is a lot of headings under behavior that reflect the kinds of things your chapter treats.

Can I change areas of the Wikipedia entry on this organism that are not behavior? Yes, you can change anything you like on this or other organisms. You may add things that are missing like geographic distribution, diet, taxonomy, appearance, or links to Wikimedia photos, for example. But these additions will not count towards this assignment, which is about behavior. Anything you add should follow the Wikipedia principles, hold a neutral tone, and be well referenced.

Can you give me some examples of good work on Wikipedia in this general area? OK, here are a few. Some of them are not based on specific animals, but rather on specific aspects of a given animal. The entry on love darts of snails and slugs is good in a lot of ways but needs more on how they evolve and conflicts of interest. People from the sexual selection or mating system teams could add this. The entry for the monarch butterfly is pretty good. One of my students, Ben Ong, brought the piece on the American white ibis a lot of the way towards being a Good Article, then a Featured Article. I want this for you for all your pieces.

Can you give me some examples of important species with interesting behavior that are in dire need of work? Unfortunately, this is very easy. We could begin with one of my favorite birds, the great egret, of which I have many photos you could use. The American coot is another one that is important. Black-throated blue warblers have great biology on extra pair copulations and parental care, and the article is a total stub. The one on the Northern mockingbird isn’t much better. If you do birds, I have a great book you can use, but only in my office. If you go to some of my much loved insects, Polistes annularis has a tiny article. Polistes exclamans has nothing. Stingless bees, Meliponinae, aren’t much better. Some of these stubs don’t even have the Wikipedia requirement of an outline. I would disagree that these two are of low importance. You could work on getting that changed if you do them.

How do I get a draft of the assignment from my partners so I can serve my role as Wikipedia expert, writing expert, or fact checker? Ask them for their assignment. Give them your assignment so they can do their role. Leave time to do this before the final deadline, because you will have to revise your entry according to their comments, or get help uploading the work. You might consider having a last session together so you can contribute your role efficiently and chat with them as you do it. Teamwork works well with frequent face-to-face contact.

Do I have to actually change something on Wikipedia? Yes. Add your modifications to the appropriate page. Include the course banner. Briefly describe what you have done on the talk page for your topic.

What if I really bomb this assignment? You will have an opportunity to earn back some of the points by responding to our comments and revising your entry thoughtfully.