Resources for Educators – collaborative writing assignments
About the Assignment
I designed these assignments with two goals in mind:
- Give students an opportunity to write collaboratively, to build professional and science writing skills.
- Create materials that would enhance student learning and build toward an open-access digital textbook.
Notice that each iteration built from the previous year(s). In 2020 students created bulleted outlines. These were useful, but didn’t help them practice writing; so in 2021 I changed the prompt to a blog-style narrative summarizing each topic. (I wrote an example to show students what I was looking for, that is now the Introduction to this textbook.) In 2022 I refined the blog-style narrative prompt to focus on how each topic manifests in North Carolina, in alignment with North Carolina State University’s land grant mission.
Collaborative Notes
assigned in fall 2020
Vocabulary terms
- Define any key terms that were included in the lecture.
Notes
- Briefly summarize the topics and concepts discussed in the lecture, jigsaw and/or case study activities.
Key Takeaways
- What are the overarching themes or unifying concepts for this unit?
- How might this information be applied to address grand challenges?
- Are there any unsolved mysteries? Can you suggest future studies that would help to improve our current understanding?
Resources
- Include APA citations for any papers that were assigned for a jigsaw activity or referenced as a specific example in the lecture or as part of a case study.
Collaborative Summaries
assigned in fall 2021
Instructions
- Work with your group to write a 1-2 page blog-style post about this week’s topic.
- Each individual should contribute roughly the same amount of text in Version history.
- Your post should extend and reflect on the material in an engaging way.
Content
- Define the topic. Throughout your post, bold any key terms from the lecture (i.e., vocabulary from the Notes).
- Give a few examples of the topic “in action”. You can draw from your article assignments, popular media, or any other compelling/weird/interesting examples of this topic – just make sure you describe and explain each.
- Implications, looking ahead: How is this topic relevant to particular disciplines or grand challenges?
References and Resources
- Include APA citations for any papers or other resources that you consulted to write your post. Create a numbered list of References at the end of your document, with your sources listed in the order they are cited in text.
- Cite any relevant references in-text using numbers in square brackets [#].
Figures
- Be sure to include citations/sources for all figures.
- You can used Advanced Google Image search to specify openly licensed images, and/or search a database of openly licensed images
- Include the following statement in your figure caption, for example: “Figure adapted/reproduced from [source] with permission.”
Spotlight on NC
assigned in fall 2022
Instructions
- Work with your group to write a 1-2 page blog-style post that describes / explains at least one example of this week’s topic, that manifests somewhere in North Carolina.
- Each individual should contribute roughly the same amount of text in Version history.
- Your post should explain and reflect on the material in a clear and engaging way.
Content
- Describe at least one example of the topic that occurs / manifests here in North Carolina. You can draw from your article assignments, popular media, or any other compelling/weird/interesting examples of this topic – just make sure you describe and explain where in NC the ecological topic occurs and describe the system sufficiently that any reader who is unfamiliar with NC, can understand and appreciate how the natural system(s) in our state relate to class.
- Throughout your post, bold any key terms from the lecture (i.e., vocabulary from the Notes) and explain how the system you are describing fits the definition of that term.
- Key takeaways and implications, looking ahead: How is this topic relevant to particular disciplines or grand challenges?
Figures
- Include at least one figure, with a caption explaining what it is you are illustrating. The figure can be an image, a graph of published data, or a BioRender of your own creation.
- Be sure to include citations/sources for any images or plots that you did not create yourself.
- You can used Advanced Google Image search to specify openly licensed images, and/or search a database of openly licensed images
- If you use a preexisting image, include the following statement in your figure caption: “Figure adapted/reproduced from [source].”
References and Resources
- Include APA citations for any papers or other resources that you consulted to write your post. Create a numbered list of References at the end of your document, with your sources listed in the order they are cited in text.
- Cite any relevant references in-text using numbers in square brackets [#].
Tips to get started (fromThe OPEN Notebook)
“Many science writers feel at ease writing about medical, environmental, or biological topics. For these writers, entering the world of physics, math, and engineering can seem like a daunting task. And on the Internet, where fact-checkers are often absent and misinformation abounds, it can seem almost impossible. But don’t let the hard sciences fool you. Rhett Allain, a physics professor at Southeastern Louisiana University and blogger at Wired, explains how blogging can be a boon to the hard sciences.
- Where do you get ideas for blog posts? If you’re like me, you answer questions that you have yourself. When I see something in the news that looks interesting and physics-related—which isn’t difficult given that just about everything that moves or is powered by electricity is connected to a physics concept—I will make that into a blog post. Sometimes, too, it will be a question that someone else asked. For instance, someone asked why the moon doesn’t crash into the Earth even though the Earth pulls on the moon. That’s a great question. It is fun to try and explain these things in a way that large numbers of people can understand.
- See Erin’s example
- Funky anecdotes, and personal reflection work, too!
