Plant Nutrition
edit•Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? The references are attainable but not all meet the Wikipedia requirements. For instance, the first reference used to cite the essentials for plant growth has an inproper formatting for web source references. The reference should read in the format cite web |url= |title= |author=|date= |website= |publisher= |access date= |quote= . In addition, the first reference fails to link connect the reader with the criteria mentioned.
•Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources?if biased, is that bias noted? The sources in this article range from academic institutions, textbooks, articles, professional organizations, and plant science publications. The sources are not neutral and are based on scientific evidence via science research papers and supported science knowledge. It seems like the page could be considered "bias", although plant nutrition is a science based topic so it is based on science facts.
•Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added? The macro-nutrients sections looks like it could use some clarifying. For example, Calcium is describe by listing constant factual information to support the importance of calcium in plant nutrition. The information on Calcium is missing its significance on plant nutrition. The wiki page fails to mention how calcium facilitates cation exchange capacity and how the element should be applied in specific amounts. The sources used for calcium is some what out dated as two of them are from the 1960's and the other two from 2011-2012.
•How does this article compare to the way we talk about plant nutrition in class? Very poorly, because it leads the reader through multiple aspects of plant nutrition. In class, we learned about the cation exchange capacity(CEC) for a general foundation in further development of plant nutrition. In the wiki page, the reader starts learning about the definitions of plant nutrition and the important contributes of the science. As the reader continues to the next sentence in the wiki page they our lead astray by throwing factual concepts at them. The main difference between how we learn in class to how plant nutrition is expressed in the wiki page is clarity. The class is structured by giving students the fundamental information in understanding plant nutrition. Starting in week one with learning about soil science, this allows the learners to understand why soil chemistry is so important for plant nutrition. Additionally, by providing a foundation to the topic verses throwing facts at learners, plant nutrition complexities can be expressed and retained.