BIOL398-04/S15:Week 1

This journal entry is due on Tuesday, January 20 at midnight PST (Monday night/Tuesday morning). NOTE that the server records the time as Eastern Standard Time (EST). Therefore, midnight will register as 03:00.

Overview

The purpose of this assignment is three-fold:

1. To set up your individual user page on this wiki as an online resume or curriculum vitae (CV). This will allow the instructors and other students in the course to get to know you. This page is also available to the public and can be used as a professional resume/CV.
2. To learn the skills needed to edit this wiki and set up your template, which you will use for all subsequent assignments in this course.
3. To begin the process of self-reflection on the shared journal page.

User Page

Set up your individual user page on this wiki (accessible via your username at the top of the page). Your user page should take the form of a résumé or, in academic circles, a curriculum vitae. Dr. Dahlquist has such pages, both within this wiki (user page) and online in general. You may use those as starting points. As students, your information may be different from ours. OpenWetware automatically fills in your user page with automated content that may not apply to you. You will need to delete any unneeded information from the automated content and add the following:

1. Name
2. Contact Information
   • E-mail address (I recommend that you use the "E-mail me through OpenWetware" link for this so that you don't make your real e-mail address public, and thus subject to spam.)
   • LMU snail mail address
3. Education
   • Major
   • Expected graduation year
   • Upper division courses in biology, chemistry, math, and computer science that you have taken (including those in which you are enrolled this semester)
4. Career interests and goals (if you know)
   • Description of any independent research projects in which you have been involved, including:
     • Title of project
     • Mentor's name
     • List of presentations and/or publications resulting from the project
5. Work experience
   • Position/title
   • Employer
   • Dates
   • Responsibilities
6. Personal interests/hobbies
7. What is your favorite aspect of biology and why?
8. What is your favorite aspect of mathematics and why?
9. Feel free to customize your page in any way you wish, bearing in mind that this site is public and that you should present a professional face to the world.

Talk Page

For quid pro quo, do this as well:

• Write one question that you would like to know about each of us on our user talk pages ( Dr. Dahlquist's talk page and Dr. Fitzpatrick's talk page, and we will answer them there. Make sure to sign your question with the standard MediaWiki signature shortcut (~~~~).

Individual Concerns (by email)

To keep your answers to the following questions private, please send an e-mail to both Dr. Dahlquist and Dr. Fitzpatrick with answers to the following questions. Note, if your answer to a question is no, please still e-mail us with your no answer:

1. Do you have any worries or concerns about this class at this point?
2. Is there anything else you would like us to know?

-=== Practice your Wiki Skills ===

The previous sections listed the content that you need to provide on the wiki. In formatting your pages, demonstrate all of the following skills. Find a way to make integrate them naturally into the content (e.g., do not say “Here is an image.” and put just any image on the page).

1. Every time you edit a page (whether it is a content page or discussion page), enter a meaningful description of your change in the Summary field at the bottom of the editor. This allows other users to easily see (say via the Special:RecentChanges or history pages) what has happened to the page since they last visited it.
2. Create a new Wiki page: [[new page title]] — When you include a non-existent link in a page (say, your user page), the software can tell that this page doesn't exist and colors it red instead of blue/purple. When you click on the red link, you are then given the option to edit (and thus create) the page.
   • We suggest you practice this by creating your Week 2 journal entry page. The name for the page should be in the format "username Week 2" (i.e., that is the text you put between the square brackets when you link to this page).
3. Link to a page within our Wiki: [[page title|optional visible label]]
   • Go to the People and link your name to your own user page.
4. Link to an external Web page: http://address or [http://address visible label]
   • The second form of the link is preferred because it looks neater on the page.
5. Use headings: === title === (number of equals signs indicates heading level)
   • By convention, start your largest heading with two equals signs. The single equals sign is for the title of the page and is automatically created when you create the page.
6. Create a bulleted list: *
   • Note that you can create sub-bullets underneath by using multiple asterisks, e.g., **, ***, etc.
7. Create a numbered list: #
   1. Note that you can create numbered sub-lists by using multiple number signs, e.g., ##, ###, etc.
   2. You can also mix bullets and numbers, e.g., *#, #*, or even #*#, etc.
   3. Do not skip lines between your bulleted or numbered lists, or the wiki will not interpret your syntax correctly.
8. "Comment out" your Wiki code: <!-- commented-out Wiki text --> When you "comment out" your wiki code, the code will be visible on the Edit page, but will not be visible on the wiki page itself. "Commenting" is a common practice in coding that is used to explain the meaning of the code for someone else reading it. In this situation, commenting can be used to keep a rough draft of a wiki page invisible until you are ready for it to be seen.
9. Upload an image file: Click Upload file then follow the instructions.
   • Use the image on your page: [[Image:exact-name-of-image-file]]
   • REMEMBER: DO NOT SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED WORK WITHOUT PERMISSION! We suggest you include an image of yourself that would be suitable for a professional resume.
10. Upload another type of file (such as .pdf): Click Upload file then follow the instructions.
    • Link to the file you uploaded on your Wiki page: [[Media:exact-name-of-uploaded-file|visible label]]
    • REMEMBER: DO NOT SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED WORK WITHOUT PERMISSION! We suggest that you include something professional, such as the Word or PDF version of your paper resume, a scientific paper you have written, etc.
11. Assign one or more categories to your page: [[Category:category name]] This creates an automatic "table of contents" for the wiki. When you click on a category link at the bottom of a page, a new page opens giving you a list of all wiki pages that have been assigned that category.
    • Throughout the course, you will use the category [[Category:BIOL98-04/S15]] for all of the pages you create.
12. Use the discussion page to make a comment. Wiki etiquette requires that you sign your comments with your "signature": ~~~~ (4 tildes in a row). These tildes get converted automatically, for example, into: Kam D. Dahlquist 15:47, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
    • You can fulfill this by posting your comment on Dr. Dahlquist's user talk page.
13. Create a template for yourself and use it on your user page. A template is a block of wiki text that you want to use over and over again on various pages. Instead of having to either re-type that content or even copy-and-paste it multiple times, you can simply put the content on a special Template page. You then use code to invoke the template on any other page in which you want that text to appear. There are two steps to creating a Template.
    • Create your template page like you would create any other new wiki page, but using the prefix Template: as part of the page name. For example, your template should be called [[Template:username]].
    • Click on the link and put content on this page that you will want to use over and over again. At the minimum, you should use it to create a set of navigation links that you will use in each week's journal entry. Each week as part of your journal assignment, you will be asked to create a link to your user page, the assignment page, your journal entry page, and the shared journal page, as well as add the category "BIOL368/F14" to your page. If you put these links on your template and then invoke the template on your journal page, this will automatically be taken care of for you. You may also wish to include any other links that you would find useful.
    • Once you have added and saved the content to your Template page, you need to use your template on your user page. To do so, invoke the template by using the following syntax: {{Template:username}} in the place you wish the content of the template page to appear. This will "expand" the template to its full contents on the actual page.

Shared Journal Assignment

• Store your journal entry in the shared Class Journal Week 1 page. If this page does not exist yet, go ahead and create it (congratulations on getting in first :) )
• Link to your journal entry from your user page.
• Link back from the journal entry to your user page.
• Sign your portion of the journal with the standard wiki signature shortcut (~~~~).
• Add the "BIOL398-04/S15" category to the end of the wiki page (if someone has not already done so).

Read and Reflect

• Answer the "before" set of reflection questions at the end of this assignment.
• Read Chapters 1 and 5 of Letters to a Young Mathematician by Ian Stewart.
• Read Chapter 1 of On Becoming a Biologist by John Janovy, Jr.
• The readings can be downloaded from the "Content" section of the course MyLMUConnect site.
• Answer the "after" set of reflection questions at the end of this assignment.

Reflection Questions

Before reading the Stewart chapters (on your honor), answer the following questions;

1. When you hear the term mathematics, what comes to mind?
2. Do you consider yourself a mathematician? why or why not?

Before reading the Janovy chapter (on your honor), answer the following questions;

1. When you hear the term biology, what comes to mind?
2. Do you consider yourself a biologist? why or why not?

After reading the Stewart and Janovy chapters, answer the following questions:

1. What did you find most interesting or provocative about the Stewart reading?
2. What did you find most interesting or provocative about the Janovy reading?
3. What does it mean to be a biologist? Do you consider yourself a biologist? Why or why not?
4. What does it mean to be a mathematician? Do you consider yourself a mathematician? Why or why not?
5. What are the similarities and differences between the two readings?
6. Please feel free to read and respond to your classmates' answers.