Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Louisiana State University/HNRS 1035 Natural disturbance and society (Fall 2015)

Natural disturbances shape our world, causing disruption to our lives, while simultaneously benefiting ecosystem composition and structure. This course will introduce disturbance ecology and explore the effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on ecosystems using past and recent disasters. We will discuss the influence these events have on ecological and societal aspects and how past practices have shaped current responses. The course will also emphasize science literacy across disciplines and is communication-intensive, focusing on written and spoken communication.

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.

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Handout: Editing Wikipedia


 * Create an account and then complete the online training for students. A detailed description of the homework is posted on Moodle in the Wikipedia folder. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.

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Resources: Online Training for Students


 * Select a stub disturbance/disaster article and make the following improvements:
 * Identify the stub article you will improve on our Wikipedia course page
 * Search for plagiarism in existing content
 * Add 1-2 sentences of new information, supported by appropriate scientific references
 * Add a link to another Wikipedia article
 * Stub articles can be located by searching Category:______ stub. A few examples are listed below, but you are not limited to these choices.
 * Disaster
 * Earthquakes
 * Ecology
 * Floods
 * Tropical cyclones

Week 2

 * Select 3 different disturbance/disaster articles related to lectures presented and make the following improvements:
 * Identify the articles you will improve on our Wikipedia course page
 * Search for plagiarism in existing content
 * Add 2-3 sentences of new information, supported by appropriate scientific references (at least 1 article)
 * Add 1-2 links to other Wikipedia articles and/or external webpages
 * Indicate in your User sandbox what contributions you made them
 * Indicate in the article Talk Page why you made these contributions (Not that it was part of an assignment)
 * Be sure to connect science in society though your overall contributions.