Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Ohio State/Global Climate Change - Causes and Consequences (Spring 2017)

This interactive class challenges students to understand the climatic and environmental changes currently facing our planet. Understanding the causes of global climate and environmental change requires knowledge of the Earth system, its climate, the mechanisms that force climate and the human activities that affect the magnitude and direction of some of these forcing mechanisms. Yet grappling with the consequences of human‐induced climate change implicates broader political realities and energy conversion technology. The issue of global warming is central to the class, and forms a context for students to develop and apply critical thinking. This will be fostered in class by careful reading, lectures, discussion, films, exercises, and presentations. We will address the fundamentals of climate science theory, concepts, key evidence, and methodology. In addition, we will focus on developing energy literacy, as arguably this issue is grounded in the broader context of our society’s energy demands, sources and usage. A key learning outcome is to develop the knowledge base and insight to critically evaluate information presented from various media sources.

Week 1
Welcome to our Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for our course. Be sure to check with your instructor to see if there are other pages you should be following as well.

Our course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them throughout the assignment. You can also reach them through the &quot;Get Help&quot; button on this page.


 * If you haven't already, create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you.

To get started, please review the following handouts:


 * Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
 * Evaluating Wikipedia

Week 2

 * It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take.
 * New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade. 
 * When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page.

Week 3
Due Thurs 3/2:  Note: This was REVISED after class discussion on 2/23  ''' Due 2/23. Split your time over the next couple weeks. '''

It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles as they relate to our class. For this exercise, you'll evaluate a two Wikipedia articles, answer some questions, and then leave suggestions for improving it on the article's Talk page. First, you'll evaluate an article dealing with a broad topic related to paleoclimatology and the study long-term natural climate variability. Then, you'll evaluate a more specific &quot;proxy&quot; topic.


 * 1) Complete the &quot;Evaluating Articles and Sources&quot; training (linked below).
 * 2) Select one of the following broader themed Wikipedia pages to read and evaluate.


 * Climate Change (focus on evidence)
 * Paleoclimatology
 * Climate proxies
 * Paleoceanography
 * Quaternary glaciation

3. With your chosen article, consider the following questions (but 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? Check the sources. Are they neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Check a few citations &amp; references. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
 * Is the page locked? Take a look at Wikipedia's protection policy - what is good or bad about this policy? How could it be abused?
 * Is any information in the article that is out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?

Make a section in your sandbox space where you can leave notes for yourself about the topic. These notes will be used to help guide you for later assignments in the term.

Choose at least 2 questions relevant to the article you're evaluating. Leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — KeyanaA (talk) 19:52, 2 March 2017 (UTC).

4. Now, select one article about a specific paleoclimate approach or proxy. Here are a list of some, but you can find others:


 * Dendrochronology
 * Paleolimnology
 * Sclerochronology
 * Coral(climate research)
 * Ice Core
 * Stable isotope ratio
 * delta 18-O
 * Hydrogen isotope (paleo-reconstruction)
 * Varve
 * Palynology
 * Pack Rat
 * Foraminifera
 * Paleosol
 * Raised beach
 * TEX-86 (alkenone biomarker)
 * Radiometric dating

5. Critique your chosen article and address the following: (1) How well does the article explain the use of proxy in understanding past climate? For this, you'll want to draw on your understanding of the proxy from other sources (i.e. lecture notes, other web pages, Cronin's text book, etc.). Specifically comment on how well the article address:


 * data analyses;
 * assumptions;
 * strengths and weaknesses of the proxy method.

(2) Are the peer-reviewed articles listed current and appropriate to demonstrate the use of the proxy? To do this, conduct your own search using an online reference database, and identify two peer-reviewed articles that use your proxy. Are these on the Wikipedia article? (3) Make at least two recommendations for improving the Wikipedia article (e.g. could better figures/pictures to be added? More current/relevant references? Other web links?). Again, leave your evaluation on the Talk page, sign with four tildes...BUT ALSO copy and paste your evaluation to Word, and hand in separately to Carmen dropbox (or print and give hardcopy to Alex).