It's a fascinating question, especially when you consider the sheer power Wikipedia has over how people learn about the world: Some 8,000 people view the site every second, and it's almost always a top link result when we Google something we want to know.

That question is at the heart of a clever program that has university students, overseen by professors, create and edit Wikipedia articles instead of writing term papers to demonstrate their comprehension of a subject.

The idea is pretty genius in its simplicity: Students develop writing skills and critical thinking while the crowdsourced encyclopedia gets a booster shot of academic knowledge to fill in some of the gaps. This year the focus is on science—and specifically, women in science.