This is my page, its rather simple, as like like to keep things simlpe. I am currently part of the WikiProject AP Biology 2011 where the students must edit articles and make their own pages. The goal of this project is to advance your article to Featured Article status, an extremely difficult acheivment. The time frame to do this in is an entire school year, which seems plenty, but when you look at the work to be done it doesn't seem like enough time to complete this monumental task, nevertheless, I am not one to let that get me down. My page will get done, hopefully.
This is the reputation left behind by previous project members, some big shoes to fill, but with help from this amazing Wikipedia community I think we can do it.
The entire class will will begin by making minor edits to a variety of biological topics in an effort to build confidence before tackling a single article in pursuit of FA.
The time frame will continue to be one semester; however, I plan to insert more deadlines that are linked to grades to reduce procrastination.
The final grade will be based on their portfolio, containing the student's contributions – content research, interaction with the Wikipedia community, content contribution via direct edits, formatting, images, as well as the dreaded citation formatting. This portfolio will be reviewed in a conference setting, giving the student the opportunity to justify the grade they desire.
There will be no connection between the student's grade and FA or GA status. I will be evaluating contributions, not outcome. This marks a dramatic change and hopefully reflects a more equitable form of evaluation. FA status will hopefully be an outcome of our efforts; however, it will not define student success.
Start. Get familiar with Wikipedia. Make some trial edits, however minor. Demystify the process. Leave behind any sense of intimidation. As Wikipedia puts it, learn to be bold. Learn basic editing skllls.
Plan. But minor edits alone won't get us much closer towards Featured Article status. We need to have a sense of what more needs to be done, and an overall plan for the article. Look at models and guidelines (e.g. guidelines for articles about novels) on how to write good and feature articles. What sections are required? What will be the article structure? What information is needed?
Share. We will need to divide up the tasks that we've identified in the planning stage. Who is going to do what and when?
Research. This is vital. A Wikipedia article is worth nothing unless it comprises verified research, appropriately referenced. This will entail going to the library, as well as surfing the internet!
Assemble and copy-edit. As the referenced research is added to an article, we need to ensure that it does not become baggy and disorganized, though there will be moments when it is obviously in a transitional stage.
Informal Review. First, informal reviews among ourselves and consultation with members of the FA-Team.
Good article nomination. There is always a backlog of articles to be reviewed, so nominate early.
There's no precise order for everything. (Wikipedia doesn't care if you skip everything and go straight for a FA nomination: as long as the article satisfies the criteria.) 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 featured article from scratch. So we need also to be methodical.
And it may turn out that not all articles will be submitted to Featured Article Review. But this should still be our goal!
I am a fan of, well, no sport teams really. I'm not to big of a sports fan, but I like to watch a game or two here and there. I am taking this AP biology class because I wanted to learn more about biology, not for the credits or because I might not have to take it again in college. I like biology, but my real love is for engineering, more specifically, airframes and ramjet/scramjet engines. I love a technical challenge, maybe that's why I enjoy biology so much, it all has a base in chemistry. In chemistry everything has a reason why it is there and why it does what it does, and they make sense. Unlike math which is all just rules and its just boring, but good to have when you need it, and much different from literature classes, which I see no point in really. I love writing, but reading and anylizing books, no. And history, well that's interesting and i like it, but it has no great qualities that shine out to me. Which brings me back to sciences, which I really do love. Physics is particularly intriguing to me, all sciences are.
SR-71 "Blackbird"
An SR-71B Trainer over the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California in 1994. Note the raised second cockpit for the instructor.
Because of my huge amount of interest in engineering and aircraft you would imagine it started early and right you would be. At the early age of 4 I was obsessed with trains, steam trains in particular because of the immense amount of moving parts you can see, the smoothness of the action. The whole beauty of the steam rising from imbetween the wheels and out of every crease and crevice, looking on the verge of explosion, because it was. Being young all of this fascinated me. Over the years as I began to learn more about airplanes and how the engines work the fascination for trains was replaced by one for planes. I loved and still do love the basic concept of a jet engine: air, compress it, mix with fuel, ignite, and channel through exhaust. Amazingly simple and effective. One plane that caught my eye in particular was the Lockheed MartinSR-71, not just because it was fast, but the engineering that went into it is amazing. Some trivia, did you know that the engines in an SR-71 are more fuel efficient at mach 3 than mach 1? This very plane is why I eventually would like to work at Lockheed Martin as a air frame and engine designer. There are several other steps before that of course, going into the military as a plane mechanic or working with the military as a plane mechanic. Then to be a pilot would be nice, then engineer hopefully. Its a long shot, but I think I can make it.
As a new member to Wikipedia you can be fairly overwhelmed by the coding and how to do it and the amount of it, like I am now. So I ask you, you bold Wikipedian reading this now to aid me however you can, it would be appreciated greatly. If there are any grammatical errors feel free to edit and say how bad my grammar is if you so choose. If you are a senior editor or some person of importance reading this, let me know what you think, I would greatly appreciate it. However you can help would help so much. Thank you for visiting my page.
It is a well known fact in the world that very few people have the gift of perfect grammar, and I, a mere mortal, need your help to perfect my article. Fix spellings, incorrect capitalization, run on sentences, beat up my article, it will need a thorough beating of grammar I'm sure. If there is anything you can do to help, let me know, I would greatly appreciate it. I will have a link to the article in this paragraph once I have created it. It may be a while until the article is created, so even if there is no link, please add to the discussion page of my profile, any help is appreciated.
If any other member of the project needs help with something, let me know. I will try to help you. I think I have a fairly good understanding of how to edit most of the basic parts of a page. Leave a message somewhere to let me know of your Wikipedia needs. I'll get back to you when I can. If I can find any, I will have a list of links to help pages. If I cannot, feel free to look in the coding of my page, it should have an answer to your question in there somewhere, just please don't change anything. You will quickly learn that Wikipedia does not like things in any random order.
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