First draft assignment instructions now ready.

First draft instructions are now activated. Look in Writing assignments module, items 7.1, 7.2, 7.3.

First draft due date is in the instructions page.

daVinci1 is cooking

The Connotea group daVinci1 is starting to cook pretty good. Their group library in Connotea is building up, and judging from discussions in the Webcourses discussion area, they have some good ideas for their spec sheet.

Tactics (1)

A few comments on tactics:

1. Sometimes the search mechanism in Nature and Science come up empty without good search terms. So experiment and try different keywords, such as
   1. "renaissance"
   2. "pigment"
   3. "Martin Kemp" (co-founder of Universal Leonardo)
   for da Vinci topics, and
   1. "spherule"
   2. "comet, carbon"
   3. "detonation"
   for Younger Dryas topics. Experiment and be creative.
2. You won't find an article that is dedicated completely to your answer, "The answer is that..." which would be nice. Your answer must be put together from pieces of information, so read carefully and look for nuggets that help you build up your answer.
3. There is sufficient room in these questions that each member of your group might have a significantly different perspective on the answer. E.g, someone might concentrate on iridium and another on carbon. So don't be put off by that, but learn from it and become more wise.
4. The journal Science is weird. If the two archive links, items 6.2 and 6.3 in the Writing module, are not working for you, especially 6.3 for Science, then go in through the UCF Library's website directly, which you can all do. Log in, then click the Online Journals link and type in Science in the Journal Title box and hit the GO button. This will get you rolling.

These groups are now activated in Connotea

Our writing activity will occur in Connotea and Webcourses, so you will belong to a mirror group in Connotea that corresponds to your Webcourses discussion group. Here are the groups that are full in Webcourses and completely activated in Connotea:

In Webcourses            In Connotea

---

Da Vinci 1daVinci1
Da Vinci 4daVinci4
Connotea column links to each group's library

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The following two groups are full inside Webcourses, but some members are not registered in Connotea yet.

1. Da Vinci 2, Sarah not on Connotea
2. Younger Dryas 2, Austin and Evan not on Connotea.

Which makes this a good point to remind you: no more points are available to you for the writing assignment unless you are part of Connotea. There are only 11 of you that have not gotten to this task, so get it done ASAP.

Here is the list, in no particular order, of all Connotea groups that have at least one student activated:

18. daVinci1
19. daVinci2
20. daVinci3
21. daVinci4
22. daVinci4a
23. YoungerDryas1
24. YoungerDryas2
25. YoungerDryas2a

Writing groups - signups will be this week.

Your topic group will form this week -- signup sheets in Webcourses -- starting Tuesday or Wednesday or so, and the deadline will be lunchtime, Monday after vacation. You cannot earn further points on your writing assignment without being in a group and without having your Connotea library up and running.

Once you join your group, there will be discussion tasks, research tasks in Nature and Science, Connotea bookmarking tasks,which you can work on while the rest of your group joins up. Those tasks will lead up to first draft of your paper, due date TBA. All will be located in Writing module, linked to the homepage icon of the man running with pencil.

As always, when I activate new tasks, I will announce them here in Announcements.

Connotea points, 99

I just uploaded Connotea points for half the class, plus a short comment about your Connotea library. Most look fine, but some need work before they are acceptable.

If you got 99 on your "Connotea works?" score, that means your library needs to be fixed, and the comment line will direct you how. Most need SFX to be activated.

1. Click to the Writing Assignment module via the icon of a man running with a pencil.
2. Open the Writing Assignment: two tracks page.
3. Select the bookmarking startup move b, "Join the Connotea social bookmarking site."
4. Re-do items D and E in the startup assignment box. They will allow you to get SFX set up and working, which will make the DOI method useful to you and your group.

A few of you got comments on cleaning up your bookmark - edit for author, page and volume number etc. Just hit the Edit link next to that bookmark.

If you have not gotten registered, get that done or you will be unable to get any points on the writing assignment; see step 3 above. Your link now is past the deadline, so you won't even get partial credit, but without a Connotea library, you will risk zero/50 on the entire assignment in which you cannot participate.

Some of you have email trouble from Connotea - stay with it and coordinate with Ashton and Dr. B. We will get it whipped into shape!