![]() | This
WikiProject is defunct. It has been merged into or replaced by WikiProject AP Biology 2011. Consider participating in that or looking for related projects for help or ask at the Teahouse. If you feel this project may be worth reviving,
please discuss with related projects first. Feel free to change this tag if the parameters were changed in error.
|
Join us at
WikiProject AP Biology 2011
.
A high school class in North Carolina -
Croatan High School in
Newport, North Carolina - will contribute to Wikipedia until May 15, 2009. The collective goal is to write biology related articles and bring them up to
featured article status (or,
good article status).
Feel free to discuss this project. The lead editor is Jimmy Butler. Please notify me of any concerns; especially if they involve the behavior of my students on Wikipedia. They are young (10th grade high school); yet, enthusiastic. With a little patience, this should be an inspirational experience for all.
The dreaded “Research Paper” is a standard hurdle for most AP Programs. Rightfully so, being that many college courses require such publications to validate your existence. As a consequence, I have graded literally hundreds of papers with the same enthusiasm as my students proclaimed during their creation.
In the end, they were rewarded for their effort or destroyed for their incompetency; some caught by the highly feared Turnitin.com anti-plagiarism software. The papers themselves merely contributed to our overly bloated landfills.
Hence, my excitement over this new approach to constructing a scientific document. Rather than researching for a paper that is destined to the circular bin, let us contribute to the world-wide data base for others to benefit.
A summary of how far we have come over the semester:
Please place this template on any article that is being worked on as part of this project. It will help the community identify the work carried out by AP Biology 2008. Simply copy and paste into the article's talk page somewhere near the top.
Place this template on the talk page of articles that are granted the FA star.
Some information on planning and resources for the AP Biology 2008 Project.
There's no precise order for everything. There's always the need for small, incremental change. But over the course of the project we're looking for radical change, in some cases seeking to create a feature article from scratch. So we need also to be methodical.
And it may turn out that not all articles will be submitted to Feature Article Review. But this should still be our goal!
NB see also what Wikipedia has to say about article development.
Whenever you edit, make sure that you are signed in. Also, add four tildes ~~~~ to the end of all comments you make on talk pages. This will let people know who is talking.
To get past the stumbling blocks of GA and FA, articles will have to conform to the Wikipedia style guides. The three largest barriers are:
Secondary style guide are specific to different projects. Articles must conform to these also. Conflict between any of these is inevitable and troublesome; editors simply have to work out conflicts through consensus.
You can always ask for help at:
Show at own risk. |
---|
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. |
I've decided to hijack this section for my own personal area of self-reflection. My father once said that every one has a right to carry around their own personal bucket of fecal matter (teachers are limited on the word choices here). We have a right to crawl into the bucket and splash around, sling waste on the walls, or dive head first into it. The only rules are: Do not drown yourself while in the bucket, do not sling your fecal matter on others who may be nearby, only fools climb in the bucket with you, and most importantly - when crawling out leave all its contents in the bucket. Maybe this section will be my bucket.
It has been awhile since I've splashed in my bucket. One of the perks of working two full time jobs - not much time for self pity. Also, not much time for closure on a project that has been the most inspirational and frustrating undertaking of my teaching career. Frustrating in that so many students saw it as an obstacle, an intrusion into their personal space. Those that log their 90 min of class time, then not another thought of the course until the next day, did not fair well. Rewarding, in that those that rose up - did so in a glorious fashion. The class started with 28 students, with 14 dropping the first semester; in part, because they were not up to the Wikipedia challenge. Such attrition rates could lead to insufficient enrollment and a loss of the course from the school's curriculum. Research papers alone serve as a deterrent to many; a paper which can not be copy/pasted from the internet served as an even more intimidating barrier. In the end - natural selection played its role - the weak were eliminated while the strong were rewarded. The academic gains and understanding of real research were priceless. The importance of collaboration and the skills to navigate through the myriad of personalities provided insight into the reality of the work place. The satisfaction of completing a project with real-world value, trumped the traditional attitude of "its all about the grade". Will I do it again? Likely not. This project is far more suited to a new teacher; one that can commit the time and still possesses the energy and enthusiasm to lead the charge. I fell short on the task. Close monitoring and collaboration by the teacher could / would have made this project spectacular. If not for the community support - we would have gone down in flames. A better organized and structured approach at this end - to monitor student efforts and provide greater guidance and encouragement - was needed. I often found myself shooting from the hip. Hopefully, I can inspire our English department to take up the torch. A phenomenal husband / wife team not yet beat up and burned out from 26 years of teaching and now an additional seven hours a day teaching Drivers Ed. Their high energy input combined with the amazing support of the Wikipedia community would take this to a whole new level. As for me - the torch is starting to sputter. -- JimmyButler ( talk) 14:36, 14 May 2009 (UTC) |
![]() | This
WikiProject is defunct. It has been merged into or replaced by WikiProject AP Biology 2011. Consider participating in that or looking for related projects for help or ask at the Teahouse. If you feel this project may be worth reviving,
please discuss with related projects first. Feel free to change this tag if the parameters were changed in error.
|
Join us at
WikiProject AP Biology 2011
.
A high school class in North Carolina -
Croatan High School in
Newport, North Carolina - will contribute to Wikipedia until May 15, 2009. The collective goal is to write biology related articles and bring them up to
featured article status (or,
good article status).
Feel free to discuss this project. The lead editor is Jimmy Butler. Please notify me of any concerns; especially if they involve the behavior of my students on Wikipedia. They are young (10th grade high school); yet, enthusiastic. With a little patience, this should be an inspirational experience for all.
The dreaded “Research Paper” is a standard hurdle for most AP Programs. Rightfully so, being that many college courses require such publications to validate your existence. As a consequence, I have graded literally hundreds of papers with the same enthusiasm as my students proclaimed during their creation.
In the end, they were rewarded for their effort or destroyed for their incompetency; some caught by the highly feared Turnitin.com anti-plagiarism software. The papers themselves merely contributed to our overly bloated landfills.
Hence, my excitement over this new approach to constructing a scientific document. Rather than researching for a paper that is destined to the circular bin, let us contribute to the world-wide data base for others to benefit.
A summary of how far we have come over the semester:
Please place this template on any article that is being worked on as part of this project. It will help the community identify the work carried out by AP Biology 2008. Simply copy and paste into the article's talk page somewhere near the top.
Place this template on the talk page of articles that are granted the FA star.
Some information on planning and resources for the AP Biology 2008 Project.
There's no precise order for everything. There's always the need for small, incremental change. But over the course of the project we're looking for radical change, in some cases seeking to create a feature article from scratch. So we need also to be methodical.
And it may turn out that not all articles will be submitted to Feature Article Review. But this should still be our goal!
NB see also what Wikipedia has to say about article development.
Whenever you edit, make sure that you are signed in. Also, add four tildes ~~~~ to the end of all comments you make on talk pages. This will let people know who is talking.
To get past the stumbling blocks of GA and FA, articles will have to conform to the Wikipedia style guides. The three largest barriers are:
Secondary style guide are specific to different projects. Articles must conform to these also. Conflict between any of these is inevitable and troublesome; editors simply have to work out conflicts through consensus.
You can always ask for help at:
|
Show at own risk. |
---|
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. |
I've decided to hijack this section for my own personal area of self-reflection. My father once said that every one has a right to carry around their own personal bucket of fecal matter (teachers are limited on the word choices here). We have a right to crawl into the bucket and splash around, sling waste on the walls, or dive head first into it. The only rules are: Do not drown yourself while in the bucket, do not sling your fecal matter on others who may be nearby, only fools climb in the bucket with you, and most importantly - when crawling out leave all its contents in the bucket. Maybe this section will be my bucket.
It has been awhile since I've splashed in my bucket. One of the perks of working two full time jobs - not much time for self pity. Also, not much time for closure on a project that has been the most inspirational and frustrating undertaking of my teaching career. Frustrating in that so many students saw it as an obstacle, an intrusion into their personal space. Those that log their 90 min of class time, then not another thought of the course until the next day, did not fair well. Rewarding, in that those that rose up - did so in a glorious fashion. The class started with 28 students, with 14 dropping the first semester; in part, because they were not up to the Wikipedia challenge. Such attrition rates could lead to insufficient enrollment and a loss of the course from the school's curriculum. Research papers alone serve as a deterrent to many; a paper which can not be copy/pasted from the internet served as an even more intimidating barrier. In the end - natural selection played its role - the weak were eliminated while the strong were rewarded. The academic gains and understanding of real research were priceless. The importance of collaboration and the skills to navigate through the myriad of personalities provided insight into the reality of the work place. The satisfaction of completing a project with real-world value, trumped the traditional attitude of "its all about the grade". Will I do it again? Likely not. This project is far more suited to a new teacher; one that can commit the time and still possesses the energy and enthusiasm to lead the charge. I fell short on the task. Close monitoring and collaboration by the teacher could / would have made this project spectacular. If not for the community support - we would have gone down in flames. A better organized and structured approach at this end - to monitor student efforts and provide greater guidance and encouragement - was needed. I often found myself shooting from the hip. Hopefully, I can inspire our English department to take up the torch. A phenomenal husband / wife team not yet beat up and burned out from 26 years of teaching and now an additional seven hours a day teaching Drivers Ed. Their high energy input combined with the amazing support of the Wikipedia community would take this to a whole new level. As for me - the torch is starting to sputter. -- JimmyButler ( talk) 14:36, 14 May 2009 (UTC) |