During the Wikipedia assignment for this course, I learned how to use the skill of understanding scientific content and explaining it in an objective, and clear to understand way for the general public. I had never edited a Wikipedia article before, and the experience has allowed me to appreciate all the work that goes into a project as large as Wikipedia, completely run by volunteers. It has also allowed me to understand that Wikipedia can be a great place to begin to research a topic, as long as the information has a verifiable source. I have often been told by professors to never use Wikipedia, however I now know that when a Wikipedia article is well done, it can be a good starting point to find references to further understand a topic I am interested in. After frequently using Wikipedia to quickly research topics, it is very satisfying to be able to contribute to it by editing an article. The tutorials provided by the Wikipedia for students were useful to go through, even after having edited my article, as they outlined easy ways of doing things such as editing in the sandbox before publishing any edits, searching for images in the Wikipedia commons, and being careful when paraphrasing to avoid copyright violations, all of this will be helpful if I decide to edit a Wikipedia article in the future.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 