Using a Wikipedia edit-a-thon as a cross-curricular STEM representation assignment

Wikipedia is a highly used, free, online encyclopedia with known gender disparities across its biography content. Editing Wikipedia has entered STEM classrooms as a writing-focused and sometimes equity-focused assignment. This paper presents a Wikipedia edit-a-thon event at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts focused on improving articles about women in STEM. This edit-a-thon promoted cross-disciplinary collaboration and community building with faculty and undergraduate students across eleven courses and disparate disciplines and offices at the university. Edit-a-thon attendees edited pages on women in STEM and listened to five-minute lightning talks by women in the university community: students, former faculty, and administrators. The impacts of the event include the addition of more than 15,000 words and 100 references to more than 100 articles on Wikipedia. The event supported a variety of student learning outcomes in participating courses across disciplines in the sciences and humanities. A Wikipedia edit-a-thon supported student learning across multiple subjects while contributing to underdeveloped biography articles about women in STEM and helping students find a voice in the Wiki space. The edit-a-thon has potential as a cross-curricular touchpoint and to support equity and representation work.