Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)/The Atmospheric Boundary Layer (2014 Q2)/Timeline

AOS224A: The Atmospheric Boundary Layer is a graduate-level course at UCLA that covers the lowest portion of the atmosphere, representing the interface between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere. This region is strongly affected by turbulence and plays an important role in the exchange of heat, momentum, trace gases, and aerosols between the Earth’s surface and the free troposphere.

Wikipedia term project
This will be a quarter-long assignment, with milestones at various times to help ensure that progress is being made.

Students will work individually to create one wikipedia article, and will act as a peer reviewer for two other articles. The goal of the assignment is to make a substantive contribution to a Wikipedia article on a topic within the atmospheric boundary layer.

Students should, as much as possible, help each other out with questions about how to do things on Wikipedia. You should communicate the Wikipedia way -- on user talk pages, and article talk pages. If you still have a question or a problem, you can post your question at the Teahouse, ask our generous online volunteer Jami and Campus Ambassador Chris, or check out the resources at the top and bottom of this page.

Assignment 1: Wikipedia essentials
When is it due? Tuesday, April 15 2014, 3 PM - Allow about 2 hours, plus extra time if you get confused or distracted

What do I do? In this first unit, you will be introduced to Wikipedia, set up an account, your user page, and a pretend article in your "sandbox". If you are confused or get stuck, you can check out the resources at the bottom of this page, or ask a question at the Teahouse.
 * Go through the online student orientation. It is important that you also learn the basic rules of Wikipedia. Allow about an hour for this.
 * Read WP:Students. Allow about 10 minutes.
 * Create a user account on Wikipedia. Note that is usually best not to use your real name, otherwise any mistakes you make (plagiarism, copyright infringements) will be on your public record!
 * Enroll in the course page as follows:
 * Click on the "Enroll" tab at the top of this page.
 * Enter the Enrollment Token provided in the CCLE instruction email and follow any other instructions.
 * Make sure that your User Name appears in the list of students at the bottom of the course page.
 * If it does not, check the top of the page to make sure that there is no statement indicating that you are looking at a cached copy of the page. If you are, click the link to update. This might take a few minutes.
 * Look at an annotated article to better understand editing and the layout of Wikipedia articles.
 * Create your user page (so that your user name is no longer red like this. Make sure there is a link (see WP:CHEAT for basic linking advice) to the course page at the top. Your user page can be as simple as copy and pasting this: "I'm editing Wikipedia as part of this assignment and here's a link to my sandbox." And of course feel free to further personalize your user page! Allow a few minutes.
 * Create your sandbox with a pretend article. Practice using brief edit summaries for each edit. Make a first sentence with bold letters, like Wikipedia articles. Add a reference section. Cite a source. Add a picture from the Wikipedia Commons. Add a section heading. Allow about 20 minutes
 * Make some minor edits in any article of your choice (e.g., improve the writing and / or add some references).
 * Remember to always make sure that you are logged in whenever you work on Wikipedia. This is the only way you can get credit for your edits!!
 * 5% of project grade

Assignment 2: Think about your topic, and become more familiar with Wikipedia and it's standards for good articles
When is it due? Tuesday, April 15 2014, 3 PM - Allow about 3 hours, plus extra time if you have trouble settling on topics for your article.

What do I do?
 * Make a major edit (e.g., add a paragraph) to any article of your choice. Your edit must include adding a reference. Remember to always fill in the edit summary when you make an edit to an article page!
 * Read wikipedia’s policy on notability.
 * Review the criteria of a good article. At the end of the course, your article needs to meet these criteria for it to be moved online (and to get a favorable grade).
 * Review the criteria of a featured article. This is the gold standard for wikipedia articles and what I hope you will strive for.
 * Look at a few featured articles for inspiration (e.g., wind, surface weather analysis).
 * Select 2-3 topics on which you would like to write an article, and post these on your talk page under the heading "Possible topics for term project". Each topic should be within the scope of the course, and should either have a stub or should not exist as a page on wikipedia (in rare cases, I can make an exception to this). Each topic should also meet the notability criteria, and should be a topic that you can plausibly expect to find in an encyclopedia on the atmospheric sciences.
 * 5% of project grade.

Assignment 3: Select final topic and compile bibliography
When is it due? Tuesday, April 29 2014, 3 PM

What do I do?
 * Select your final topic after receiving feedback from the instructor on the topics you suggested for the previous assignment.
 * Compile a bibliography for your article consisting of at least 10 relevant books or peer-reviewed journal articles. Post this bibliography in the sandbox where you will be preparing your article.
 * Leave a note on WikiProject Meteorology stating that you’ll be writing an article on your topic, including a link to your sandbox in which you’re preparing your article, and asking for any constructive and helpful feedback. Feel free to include the bibliography you're planning to use
 * If your topic has a stub or a closely related page, leave a similar note on the talk page of that stub or page.
 * Read about writing your first Wikipedia article.
 * 5% of project grade

Assignment 4: Finish detailed outline of your paper
When is it due? Thursday, May 6 2014, 3 PM

What do I do?
 * Write an outline of your paper. The outline should be detailed enough that I get a reasonable idea of what exactly your article will cover. So all your main sections and subsections should be there, as well as suggestions for one or more figures.
 * 5% of project grade

Assignment 5: Finish first draft of your paper
When is it due? Friday, May 16 2014, 3 PM

What do I do?
 * Write the first draft of your article! It should have a clear and coherent structure, and most of the sections should be complete and include some figures. The writing does not need to be polished - most people find it more efficient to first get their ideas on paper, and then worry about putting it into appealing prose.
 * Remember to write the article in your sandbox, and to NOT move it online. We'll do that at a later point, if we both think it's good enough.
 * 5% of project grade.

Assignment 6: Have article ready for peer review
When is it due? Friday, May 23 2014, 3 PM

What do I do?
 * Finalize your article to have it ready for peer review (see below).
 * 5% of project grade.

Assignment 7: Peer review an article of one of your classmates (will be randomly assigned)
When is it due? Friday, June 2 2014, 3 PM

What do I do?
 * Peer review the contributions of a classmate. See the bottom of the course page for the randomly-assigned article that you need to review. You will have the responsibility of being a writing reviewer, a fact checker, and a Wikipedia style editor.
 * This is your chance to critically evaluate your classmates' topic and writing. Use your knowledge of Wikipedia and your knowledge of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer to generate comments about how the article might be improved. Start a new section on the (sandbox) article's talk page with the title "Comments from ..." and add your user name. Please feel free to make minor or uncontroversial edits to the article you are reviewing yourself, but if the suggestions are more substantive or ones that could generate disagreement, please make a comment on the talk page about how the article might be improved. Some specific things to say or do to assist in this assignment include:
 * Verifying that random portions of the article accurately represent their cited sources.
 * Proposing new ways of phrasing the material to make it more clear and to reduce unnecessary words.
 * Making sure that all acronyms and variables are defined at first usage.
 * Suggesting improvements to figures, and/or make suggestions for additional figures to include.
 * Suggesting ways to make the lead section follow Style Guidelines more closely.
 * Identifying potential gaps in knowledge that should be contained in a well-written encyclopedic entry on the subject.
 * Identifying places where there is ambiguity or inaccuracy over which sources are supporting what content.
 * Suggesting alterations in the order of prose, sentences, paragraphs or sections for organizational purposes.
 * Ensuring that the content is within Wikipedia's guidelines (such as neutral point of view) and avoids plagiarism or too-close paraphrasing.
 * Make sure the article incorporates into Wikipedia well by striking the right balance between underlinking, overlinking, and by not being an "orphan".
 * Your peer review should facilitate the improvement of the article. Please separate your comments into separate points (instead of being within a paragraph). For an example of separating out reviews into individual comments, see here.

What will be graded? 10 % of your project grade will be the grade for the article that you peer review. However, I might deduct points should your peer review lack detail and rigor.

Assignment 8: Finalize the article!
When is it due? Friday, June 13 2014, 5 PM

What do I do?
 * Finalize your article based on the peer review and feedback from Wikipedia community (if any)
 * Use the grading rubric posted on the course CCLE website to make sure that your article meets the expectations for the project
 * Remember to add a sentence or paragraph to any broader articles that encompass your topic, such as the article on the [Planetary_boundary_layer|planetary boundary layer]. You can add the link to your article once you’ve moved it online following my grading.
 * If your article is satisfactory after grading, and if you agree to it, you are expected to move the article online.

What will be graded? 60 % of your project grade will be the grade for your article per the grading rubric.

Further resources

 * Ten Simple Rules for Editing Wikipedia, Logan DW, Sandal M, Gardner PP, Manske M, Bateman A (2010). PLoS Comput Biol 6(9): e1000941.
 * Welcome to Wikipedia
 * Getting started
 * Where to ask questions or make comments
 * Glossary
 * Help desk
 * Reference desk
 * The manual of style
 * A list of words and phrases to avoid to ensure a neutral article.
 * The "Editing Wikipedia" brochure.
 * Avoiding plagiarism.
 * Figures and Images - You need to make sure that any figure you add to an article is suitably licensed. Usually that means Creative Commons attribution (CC-BY) or Creative Commons attribution/share-alike (CC-BY-SA). You can either try to find existing figures, or you can create your own. A great resource for finding existing figures and images is Wikimedia Commons. Here is a list of a few search tools that might help.
 * A brief video on citing your sources.