Tamara Pico

When we ask our students to write for an audience, we’re usually talking about style and tone, but writing for an audience can also mean an actual audience. Tamara Pico, an Assistant Professor in Earth & Planetary Sciences, asked students in her Winter 2023 Science & Colonialism course to write for an audience of hundreds of millions with a quarter-long set of assignments focused on adding new perspectives to existing Wikipedia articles on scientific topics.

Online Education Associate Director Aaron Zachmeier talked to Pico in March 2023 about her use of Wiki Education in her most recent offering of Science & Colonialism.

Pico’s course, Science & Colonialism, is about the relationship between colonialism and science (and scientists). This aspect of the history of science has been neglected, and Pico saw that as an opportunity for her students: They would address a knowledge gap by contributing to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. Each one of Pico’s students chose a topic (and a Wikipedia article) that resonated with them and had the potential for inquiry. A few examples: landscape architecture, the planned Thirty Meter Telescope, and the historical eruptions of Kilauea. They then composed and refined their additions to existing articles (with three rounds of peer review) within a structure provided by Wiki Education, a nonprofit organization that connects universities and Wikipedia. During that time, Pico was able to monitor students’ progress and provide feedback on a dashboard. One goal of the course was to give students an opportunity to develop research skills through a deep exploration of a topic. Students also developed an appreciation for the wonder of research. Each student, Pico said, discovered something surprising. They said, “Wow, how did we not know about this?” In the last week of the quarter, students made live edits to their chosen Wikipedia articles, and their work became visible to anyone with an internet connection. 

The public nature of the final product was key to students’ motivation and experience. What they had written would not stop with an instructor or teaching assistant. It would be read by people all over the world, and it would have to meet the exacting standards of Wikipedia’s community of editors. “They wanted it to be good, and they wanted it to be relevant,” Pico said. “The most powerful part of it is that students see themselves as contributors to this world archive of knowledge.”