Through its partnership with Wiki Education, ASPB has been helping to steadily improve Wikipedia’s coverage of Plant Biology for several years. As part of the Wikipedia Student Program, faculty at institutions of higher education across the U.S. and Canada have been asking their students to contribute to Wikipedia as a course assignment, and the results are impressive to say the least!
Nearly 100 courses have participated whose roughly 1,700 students have contributed more than 1.2 million words to Wikipedia in the field of Plant Biology. Students have tackled subjects ranging from Biomass partitioning to Andean agriculture. They’ve improved articles on individual species, such as Balduina uniflora and Plantago indica, as well as addressed broader issues, such as Species reintroduction.
The deadline to run a Wikipedia assignment in Fall 2021 is June 20. To participate in this unique program, apply at dashboard.wikiedu.org. A million words is just the beginning!
I am a professor emeritus at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who has published about 70 publication in chloroplast research (out of a total of 280) and edited two photosynthesis research books. Most recently, I wrote, together with Dominick Paolillo (Photosynthesis Research 145:237-258, 2020; DOI 10.1007/s11120-020-00782-3), a historical review on how microscopic studies led to the elucidation of the 3D architecture and macromolecule organization of thylakoid membranes.
Recently, I decided to read the Wikipedia entry of chloroplasts. What I did not like about the entry was that many of the micrographs were dated (not up to todays standards) and the text was clearly put together in a piecemeal manner. I have drafted some changes to the text and even elected from my collection a number of better chloroplast micrographs. However, not being very computer savvy, I cannot figure out how to make the changes to the Wikipedia chloroplast entry and also how to update many of the references.
To this end, I would be delighted if I could work with a student on making the changes to the chloroplast section, with the student learning how to make these changes from the course instructor, while I would help with writing of the text and identifying new micrographs.