Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo/BIO 351 - Principles of Genetics (Winter Quarter 2016)

Genetics captures our imagination as a society because it seeks to answer “Who are we?” and “Where did we come from?”. Advances in genetics promise to heal, prevent, and eliminate diseases; to feed the world; to solve crimes; to resurrect long extinct animals; and even to synthesize new life from biochemical building blocks. An understanding of the basic principles of genetics will help you to determine whether these and other promises are feasible. An exploration of the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) of these advances will allow you to make principled decisions as a professional, voter, consumer and citizen.

In this course we will explore several key principles of genetics including: the structure and function of genes and genomes, simple and complex patterns of inheritance, how genetic change creates the spectacular diversity of life on earth, the role of the environment on the outcome of heritable traits, and various ethical, legal, and social implications of genetics.

Week 1

 * Overview of the course


 * Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course


 * Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette.

Handout: [http://wikiedu.org/editingwikipedia Editing Wikipedia

]


 * Complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.

Week 2

 * Review pages 4-7 of the Evaluating Wikipedia brochure. 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.


 * Evaluate an existing Wikipedia article related to the class, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's talk page.


 * A few questions to consider (don't feel limited to these):


 * Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?


 * Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?


 * Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?


 * Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?


 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?


 * Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?


 * Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?

Resources: Evaluating Wikipedia, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Using_talk_pages.pdf Using Talk Pages

]

Week 3

 * Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class.