Category Archives: Final Projects

Weekly Update 12/9 – 12/16

Final Projects, Golden Niche

I have been working on the website, along with patrick to make it presentable. There is now a header with clear categories for visitors to visit. I have also started adding our groups content onto it such as our documentary, pictures, and more. I reuploaded patrick’s videos to youtube to make it easier to view the vidoes and so they could be embedded. Patrick has started adding sections of the research paper.

At the moment it is good enough for a person to view, if they want to during our presentation at macaulay. It just needs some fine adjustments.

Week 9 Team Boomer-Aang

Team Boomer-aang, Uncategorized

For this week we presented our topic to the class and in the Macaulay building. For the class presentation, we were not able to present the digital media version of our presentation. Instead, we video taped the presentation in the Macaulay building. Overall the presentation in the building was a success. We were expecting much more people, but the discussion portion went very well and we were successful in sparking interest in Nuclear Power from some of the participants. As of now, we are working on the video and we hope to present it in the Macaulay building.

Team Boomer-aang: Week 8

Team Boomer-aang

Yesterday we had our citizen science café!  It was a lot of fun and quite successful.  Even though we had less people than I would have liked (we had approximately 10 people; I was hoping for at least 20, if not 30), the discussion went over well.  Almost everybody participated in the discussion after the documentary, and the small number of participants kept people from interrupting each other.

The documentary is now in post-production.  We interviewed two participants in addition to filming the entire event.

We are currently going through the surveys that the participants gave us.

I thought the event was quite enjoyable – as did many of the other participants – and I would like to have more in the future.  Maybe the Macaulay chapter of Global Medical Brigades would be interested in doing one about health or a similar topic, which could be a fundraiser for them as well as an interesting event.

Weekly Update 12/2 – 12/9

Final Projects, Golden Niche

This week I went to Prospect Park. It was a pretty cold day, but I decided to try my luck. At first I searched around paths and places where people walked but quickly learned that that is not a good place to search for them. Next I went off paths, into places that most people don’t go. Things of interest were: dark colored soil, large dead logs, and areas that looked undisturbed. I also tried to dig up holes in some areas and look inside places that had holes. When I did find a good looking dead log, I tried to peel the bark and see if there were any invertebrates hiding inside. As a last resort I tried shaking logs to see if anything would scurry out.

Before I knew it, I realized I had dont a full circuit of the park via paths that people dont take. It was frustrating not finding anything, but I learned valuable information about invertebrates because of it. I learned later that during winter, many invertebrates go into hibernation, overwinter as larvae, nymphs, eggs, and pupae, and lastly migrate to other areas. Many burrow deep underground, further explaining why I couldn’t even see any.

The largest irony was in the fact that once I got home, I found at least 7 bites on my body, no doubt from the invertebrates playing hide and seek with me.

 

Project Update: Week of November 24th

Golden Niche

Our group met this past Sunday to collaborate all of our research for the paper and to discuss how the learning strands fit into our project. We bounced ideas off each other on how to create a museum exhibit to present the research we have done. Potential exhibit ideas include having a 2-hour, 4-part exhibit. Each will be a half-hour focusing on a different branch of invertebrates we have researched: insects, earthworms, spiders and pill bugs. Each part will have a lecture to introduce the focus of the exhibit followed by a free-roam period in which students would use worksheet questions to guide them through the exhibit. We will be able to use the worksheets as an assessment of what the students had learned. This idea seems promising and will likely be used in the research paper. Learning strands that apply to our exhibit ideas will be addressed in the research paper.

Week 7 Boomer-aang

Team Boomer-aang

We discussed how exactly we would present during class. We decided that since the video would not be created until after the presentation date, we would just make a short powerpoint presentation. In addition, we decided to split up the work of the paper to divided up the work evenly. Finally, we sent out invitation to the event for the citizen science cafe. We are hoping for a large attendance, but in order to ensure that we do get a large crowd, we are teaming up with Global Medical Brigades. They will have their members attend the cafe to discuss our topic.

Weekly Update 11/10 – 11/16

Assignments, Final Projects, Golden Niche

This weekend, I went to Marine Park and found almost no invertebrate wildlife. I stumbled upon one butterfly, but it flew away before I was able to take a picture of it or catch it on video. I also have some video footage of myself digging through soil in search of bugs, but to no avail.

I believe this has to do with the weather getting colder. However, it’s difficult to determine the definite reason that contributes to the ease of spotting invertebrate life. Other factors besides air temperature might be humidity, precipitation, the location of the park, surrounding human activity, and pollution. One would expect that Marine Park’s proximity to the ocean correlates to higher biodiversity, but no such luck today.