Wikipedia in a Science Setting

It was interesting to learn about the Wikipedia rating scale. I had previously only heard that since anyone can edit Wikipedia, it is not reliable. Especially in my undergraduate science classes, Wikipedia was never allowed even as a secondary source.

I would say that in the future, as a science teacher, I will probably still not allow Wikipedia to be used as a source. This is because there are so many resources out there that have the information the student is looking for. If they become a scientist, they will not be respected if they use Wikipedia. They need to learn how to look for journal articles, determine whether information is credible, and be able to validate information in a scientific setting.

That is not to say that they won't ever be able to use Wikipedia for anything, but they need to also have resources that back up what Wikipedia is saying. If I was teaching any other subject, I would let my students cite Wikipedia, but because a valuable skill in science is research, it's important to teach students how to research information properly.