Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Mississippi State University/General Biochemistry (Fall 2017)

Ø This course provides students with a comprehensive overview of the structure and function of the major classes of cellular components. Ø The students will be exposed to the state-of-the-art knowledge and methods of study in life sciences. Ø Individual assignments will expose students to recent scientific literature; the assignments will link the class material with current research and foster development of student’s critical thinking. Ø By the end of the course, the responsible student should have a solid understanding of the biochemical foundation of life.

Week 1
General info on the assignment:

As part of the BCH_6603_4603H written assignment, students will produce a literature review of proteins and enzymes that participate in cellular signaling networks in plants, learn how to create Wikipedia articles, and produce original articles that add to Wiki’s content in this specific area.

The assignment is 12 weeks-long. For each week, specific goals are described in the Course timeline. The weekly goals have to be completed by the end of each week (or, otherwise, as shown in the Course timeline). The assignment needs to be completed in a step-wise manner; that is, weeks cannot be jumped over or left unfinished. The final products of your work will be an in-class presentation (~ 5 minutes/student) to be scheduled towards the end of the semester, and the finished Wikipedia article. Each of these products is graded with 40% of the total points of the assignment. The rest of the 20% comes from completing the on line training modules “Wikipedia essentials” and “Editing Basics”, and the Peer review assigned for Week 10.

Please sign up on the course page with your Wikipedia usernames. You can create a username and enroll on the course’s page with the following enrollment link: [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Mississippi_State_University/General_Biochemistry_(Fall_2017)?enroll=crisaxmu https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Mississippi_State_University/General_Biochemistry_(Fall_2017)?enroll=crisaxmu

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The course page is the central hub of your Wikipedia Assignment. From there, you can start researching your article, select sources and prepare a bibliography, and track your work throughout the semester.

If you have questions or need guidance with certain aspects of the assignment, you can email me (MyCourses/Messages tool), Ash Rai (TA of the course, email to be announced), or you can ask Ian, the Wikipedia Content Expert in the Sciences, who can be reached at ian@undefinedwikiedu.org or via the help button on the course page.

Week 2 goals:

-          Read the brochure “Editing Wikipedia”

-          Complete the one-hour on line training “Wikipedia Essentials”

Week 2
Week 3 goals:

-          Complete the on line training on “Editing Basics”

-          Become familiar with the actual process of editing articles in Wikipedia by making basic edits to an on line Wikipedia article (add one sentence to it, correct grammar, any other simple fixes), edit your user page and sandbox, etc.

-          Consult Wikipedia guides for editing in the fields of Genes and Proteins and Species; you can find them at by clicking on the following links:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Editing_Wikipedia_articles_on_genes_and_proteins_%28Wiki_Ed%29.pdf

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Editing_Wikipedia_articles_on_Species_%28Wiki_Ed%29.pdf https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Editing_Wikipedia_articles_on_Species_%28Wiki_Ed%29.pdf

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Week 3
Week 4 goals:

-          Explore topic areas for your future article; a set of journal publications are available in the Course timeline (click on the ‘Article’ tab on the course web page). The publications uploaded are describing components (proteins and enzymes) that participate in cell signaling networks activated in plants during the immune response to pathogens. Your goal is to select one of these components as a subject of your article. Once you decide on one cellular component, click on the related publications and they will be transferred to your webpage and disappear from the pool of “Articles”

-          You will probably need additional sources to put together an article; use Google Scholar to select relevant publications on your chosen subject

-          Complete the on line training on “Sources and Citations”

Week 4
Week 5 goals:

-     Continue working on the Week 4 goals, if necessary.

-      Practice adding a sentence containing a citation to an on line article; this exercise will help you understand the process of adding citations on line and will come in handy later on when working on your article

-          Complete the on line training on “Plagiarism”

Week 5
Week 6 goals:

-          Start working on your article in your sandbox.

-          Begin by making an outline for the article (using as examples other on line articles). Aim to have a 3- 4-paragraph summary as the lead section for the full article. Add additional sections to it based on the information in your sources. The length of the final article should be around 1,500-2000 words (not including bibliography).

-          Complete the on line training on “Sandboxes and Mainspace”

Week 6
-          Continue working on your draft article, if necessary

Week 7
Week 8 goals:

-          Move your draft article to the Mainspace on line, to expose your article to a wider audience

-          Check the Talk page and edit history; Wiki editors may point out issues with your article. It is possible that a part or the whole article will be deleted. Do not get discouraged! Fix the issues and try again!

Week 8
Week 9 goals:

-          Continue working on your article to bring it to a final, acceptable form. The final product should reflect a neutral view of the subject, use multiple sources (publications), and be well written.

Intertwine is a platform where you you will be chatting with student editors enrolled in other Wiki Education courses. This week, the featured activities include:


 * Learning Wikipedia’s five pillars as evaluation criteria
 * Evaluating an existing Wikipedia article with your peers
 * Getting to know more Wikipedia editors and learning from each other's experiences

Sign up for a session here. If you haven’t logged in using your Wikipedia account, you will first be redirected to Wikipedia logging page. After logging in using your Wikipedia credentials, you will be able to sign up for our activity.

Week 9
Week 10 goals:

-          This week you will read and comment on each other’s articles. Each of you will be assigned one article for reviewing. Aim to give helpful and constructive feedback!

Week 10
Week 11 goals:

-          This week you add final touches to your article and prepare for the in-class presentations (make 1-2 PowerPoint slides explaining the main points of your article, and talk about your experiences with learning and creating Wikipedia articles)