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University of Canterbury Biology Department • July 2024

Building on the Cass project below, the Head of School Elissa Cameron asked for a Wikipedia drive to commemorate the Department's 21st anniversary, focussed on notable faculty with poor or missing articles.

Some significant UC Biology faculty
Wikidata Article Quality Photos Notes
David Schiel (Q29033540) David Schiel 1 → Very brief stub. Ref, ref
Charles Chilton (Q5076228) Charles Chilton 2 → More photos, expand?
Edward Percival (Q90726633) Edward Percival To create
William Philipson (Q4020136) William Philipson To create; in it, es, pt already
Colin James Burrows (Q21506705) Colin Burrows To create
Garth Brownlie (Q5575045) Garth Brownlie To create; article in Spanish
David Norton (Q22668623) David A. Norton To create
Dave Kelly (Q46848147) Dave Kelly To create
Michael Winterbourn (Q21393375) Mike Winterbourn To create
Robert R. Jackson (Q88011145) Robert Jackson To create
Vida Mary Stout (Q7927647) Vida Stout Needs expansion, photo
Paula Jameson (Q17279364) Paula Jameson 1 → Needs expansion
Islay D. Marsden (Q113001770) Islay Marsden Needs expansion, photo
Matthew Turnbull (Q110680874) Matthew Turnbull To create
Frank Sin (Q114714074) Frank Sin To create

This is the current To Do list, arrived at with the Head of School, to be continued through October and November and presented at the end-of-year Christmas party. Giantflightlessbirds (talk)

Cass • 16–26 January 2024

The Cass railway station, subject of a famous painting by Rita Angus.

The Cass Field Station near the tiny settlement of Cass, New Zealand, is situated on 1775 ha of high country land and has been operated by the University of Canterbury for research and education purposes since 1914. For decades students have taken part in an annual field trip at the Field Station, where they learn about local botany and ecology. In January 2024 a Wikipedian accompanied this group—very likely the world's first-ever Wikipedian in Residence on a biology field trip. As well as enriching Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons content about the history and botany of the area, I taught students how to upload photos to WikiCommons and iNaturalist under an open licence.

To do

Cass
  • Improve Cass, New Zealand
  • Improve Cass (painting) (especially with photographs)
  • Improve Thomas Cass (surveyor)
  • Create Cass Field Station
  • Improve articles for half-a-dozen species on the students' spot identification list, including photos
  • Create articles for spot identification species that lack them
  • Add photos and Wikidata for surrounding landscape
  • Add Cass-related biology publications to Wikidata and create a visualisation
Species articles to create/improve
Species Quality Photos Notes
Aciphylla subflabellata – → 0 → 4 Created, added photos from iNaturalist
Ozothamnus leptophyllus 4 → Needs heavy copy-editing
Acrothamnus colensoi 1 → 5 Rewrote with more refs, added cropped photo gallery
Discaria toumatou 1 →
Veronica brachysiphon – → 0 → 2 Created, added my own photos
Celmisia spectabilis 1 → 5 Rewrote with more refs incl. Gosden books, photos from iNat
Coprosma propinqua 1 → 5 Expanded, and added photos from iNat

Done

  • Field Station accommodation block
    Took photos all around the field station buildings before any students and vehicles arrived, and uploaded them to the new Category:Cass Field Station. Added an image to Cass Field Station (Q117789585).
  • Created Cass Station (Q124301969) and Category:Cass Station, and added properties to the painting Cass (Q122611500).
  • Added photos of Cass, The Pyramid Peak (Q31686776), Baldy Hill (Q31688212), Mount Horrible (Q31688148), Mount Misery (Q31683549), Cass Hill (Q31688175), and Sugar Loaf (Q31666099), merging and improving Wikidata as needed. Created Category:Grasmere Stream for Grasmere Stream (Q32211888). Added photos of Remus (Q31688188), Goldney Saddle (Q32209505), Mount Foweraker (Q114251091), and Purple Hill (Q31673015). Photographed students and their instructor Pieter Pelser.
  • Created Mountain Daisies: a guide to Celmisia in Aotearoa/New Zealand (2023) (Q124303331), newly-published by one of the instructors Jane L. Gosden (Q113712262), and created the publisher Manuka Press (Q124303335). Uploaded photos of Jane with her approval and attributed her publications in Wikidata. Used her publication on Aciphylla aurea browsing to improve the articles Aciphylla and Aciphylla aurea.
  • Gave a presentation to the students on iNaturalist, Creative Commons licensing, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikipedia, including adding a photo taken the previous day to the article Acrothamnus colensoi.
  • Created Cass Field Station article based on the Burrows book, and added the Rita Angus painting of the field station under Fair Use. Collected prints of the Field Station construction and student trips from the 1960s for scanning.
  • Added images and improved Wikidata for Pylon Gully (Q49343169), Mount Binser (Q31691204), and Corner Knob (Q31688162). Uploaded photos of botany field trip and Lake Sarah, and created Category:Lake Sarah.
  • Created list of seven species typical of Cass, and on the students' spot ID list, and created articles for Aciphylla subflabellata and Veronica brachysiphon. For each article, improved with references from NZPCN, the NZ flora, and reference books at the Field Station. Tasked students with taking photos of the diagnostic features of each species and uploading them to iNaturalist under an open licence.

Resources

Photo by student Hannah Gay
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