This week I created the group website. I made a silly mistake in the website title so I had to recreate it. So far I decided to go with a clean minimalistic theme so that the website looks appealing to people of all demographics and ages. It should be simple to use and navigate and I plan to structure it that way. I have also looked up how to embed youtube videos as I will need to do that for our documentary and other videos.
Category Archives: Golden Niche
Project update week of October 27th
On Friday, Patrick and I visited Central Park for a few hours primarily to explore the invertebrate wildlife. It didn’t seem to be going well at first but once we lifted a piece a bark off a tree and found spider eggs, we knew there was still more to find. It then seemed like a better idea to go where there were less people setting up for the NYC Marathon. After circumnavigating part of the lake by Strawberry Fields, we decided to start digging in order to find bugs. We carried a few paper cups to catch them. The first thing we found was a sow bug, as Patrick had later found out, which looks like a pill bug. This first find seemed alone so we then moved to a different area and found that whenever we pushed aside enough leaves, we would spot a handful of bugs; either centipedes, worms, a lady bug more sow bugs etc. Patrick luckily agreed to take the creepy crawlers home, since my mom was not too happy to have those in the house.
Project update week of October 20th
The group is planning to either go to Central Park or Prospect Park in order to find and photograph invertebrates to research. Timing is crucial since it is getting colder and more bugs are hiding away for the winter. This prompted the question of where bugs go in the winter. The answer I found on Google indicated that some migrate like birds while some hide out either in an immature form (pupae, larvae, etc.) or in an active form.
Project update week of October 13th
After creating an iNaturalist account, I realized the website needs to be explored further. In addition to being able to upload pictures, I can also see other peoples’ contributions to the website. However, I’d need to really figure out how to navigate the website, which has proved to be a challenge so far. I have found a way to view the some different species found in Central Park among other areas. The page I have found wants to say that only 84 observations were made in Central Park. More work to be done…
Patrick – Project Update – Oct. 27 – Nov. 2
This week I had the opportunity to visit both Central Park on Friday and Prospect Park on Saturday; the things I learned are pretty amazing!
Central Park
Prior to heading out of the Macaulay Building, I grabbed a couple of plastic cups for anything I might find and would like to keep. Today was a very rainy day and I was hopeful that I would find lots of interesting insects. I entered the Park near the finish line of the upcoming NYC marathon, and learned that a lot of the paths leading to the north of the Park were closed. I felt as though my greatest chances of finding invertebrates would be in the Ramble (which was to the north), so I had to go the long way to reach it, but I found a cool thing along the way.
On a tree there was what looked to be a spider web, but the spider wasn’t in sight. Of course, the spider was gone as the weather grew colder. Or so I thought. Removing a piece of the bark revealed a large group of very small baby spiders.
I don’t know how spiders reproduce, but it seems that the mother spider lays her eggs and surrounds them with webs for protection, and then abandons them. It is interesting to note both the number of spiders produced and the four large ‘sacs’, which I didn’t open up, but it’s conceivable that there were more little spiders inside of them.
I got to the Ramble finally, stopping by the famous boulevard on the way and taking a snapshot of a duck.
Because of the rain, the Ramble was very wet, and there were leaves all over. At first there weren’t any signs of insects, but we had only just started. Digging a little, we came up with our second find:
After uploading to the iNaturalist site, we found out that this is actually known as a ‘wood louse’ or a ‘pill bug’. Pretty gross stuff. Under the surface there were many more of these, perhaps 4 or 5, that scurried away when we uncovered them to the light. It seems that these invertebrates prefer moist environments, and they also prefer to stay away from sunlight in some dark, damp enclave. Upon my visit to Prospect Park, I found that wood lice are a human hazard, and should be avoided.
A bit more digging in the same spot yielded our first centipede. Upon later research we found that it resembles most closely the species Geophilus Flavus. According to Wikipedia, it is found across Europe, and has been introduced into North America and Australia. It is most commonly found on seashores. At a different location within the Ramble, we found a couple more of these centipedes, all of the same species.
Along the way, we found two different types of ants: a very small one and a group of bigger ones. Because ants are found just about anywhere, we didn’t treat this as a significant discovery, but the fact that there are different types of ants may yield closer inquiry.
A very interesting thing that we found was a white ladybug. It was a small ladybug, and it was resting on a leaf. We took a nice shot of it.
It’s too bad the thing flew away before I had a chance to see it under the microscope!
A surprising thing we found flying around was what looked (to me) to be a miniature white grasshopper, because of its hind legs. It was so small and so frail that we couldn’t be sure. Take a look for yourself!
By the end of our visit we captured a second, larger pill bug.
big-pillbug
And again the centipede:
centipede
After this visit I am now confident that there is much more life to the Park than at first meets the eye. All the invertebrates that inhabit Central Park live beneath the surface, in dark corners, away from human eyes. The goal is to disturb the ground just enough so that you can spot them as they scurry away. Catching them is a challenge, but watching them scurrying about is its own reward.
Patrick – Project Update – Oct. 20-26
This week on Sunday I visited the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. The Flatbush Avenue entrance was closed due to construction so this time we went to the entrance adjacent to the Brooklyn Museum. It looked very modern and very clean. Right next to the entrance were the Gift-shop and the new Visitor Center. The space is reserved for education, with many panels for teaching visitors how to interpret the various labels and botany on exhibit. It even includes a guessing game where one player tries to guess what plant the other player is thinking of!
Going to the Botanical Garden made me think about how we were going to do the educational part of our project. We plan on going to Central Park next week so hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to learn something about New York City’s invertebrates. We also plan to do research on what we find for the co-authored paper. That will allow us to learn more about our findings and also pass on to other people the knowledge of NYC’s invertebrate wildlife.
Patrick – Project Update – Oct. 13-19
There isn’t much to update at this point, as I’m focusing quiet a bit on midterms. I was thinking about how we were going to get these invertebrates that we plan to study. It’s possible that as it gets colder we’ll have fewer opportunities to find them. Nevertheless there may be something interesting to find.
Weekly Update 10/20 – 10/26
This week, my group and I formulated a plan for accomplishing the tasks required to complete the project. We decided that over the weekend, we would go to Central Park to observe the invertebrate life we find there. We would photograph insects we find, as well as record videos of any invertebrates we find. This task might be tedious, considering the elusive behavior of insects along with their size.
During future weekends, I would personally visit Marine Park and collect data on invertebrates. In addition, we agreed that we should freely record any invertebrate findings we might make outside of our visits to these parks.
Prior to going, however, we need to research what kind of life the taxonomic group, “invertebrate,” refers to. I know that insects are part of this group, but considering the fact that invertebrates encompass a whole host of organisms besides insects (mollusks, crustaceans, arachnids, and worms), it would be wise to have an understanding of the taxonomy of invertebrates prior to going to Central Park.
This serves as a prime example of how things we do in our everyday lives contribute to everyday science learning. Even prior to embarking on data collection, I am already have a compulsion to gain a higher understanding of my subject.
After we collect data and record our observations, we will post our findings to iNaturalist and I’ll save the photos and videos for our documentary.
Weekly Update 10/13 – 10/19
My role for the group project will be to create the website and some other smaller roles in helping my team members, like proof-reading the final paper to make it cohesive. I will be responsible for making our website accessible to people of all kinds of technological proficiency, for making the website simple to use and move around, for making our work look attractive and professional (as it can be), and to make sure all our content is presented on their. I do not know how it will look yet, but I plan to make it uncluttered. There will possibly be a banner containing a wide shot of prospect park or central park.
Weekly Update 10/13 – 10/19
My role for the citizen science project will be to collect videos, photos, and data from my group members and my personal endeavors to compile a documentary, with Saul as the narrator. I plan to make a visit to Central Park with my group within the next few weeks, followed by a personal visit or two to Marine Park in the following weeks. While there, we will try to find various invertebrates that we will observe, photograph, and record. Hopefully the culmination of our efforts in Central Park along with our individual efforts in our assigned parks will result in our understanding of noticeable trends in the invertebrate world. We will upload our findings to iNaturalist’s “New York is Wild!” Citizen Science project. We might learn facts about the lifestyles and niches of various invertebrates as we observe them. Or we might learn about population growth and decline of certain species as the season gets cooler. Findings from other people on iNaturalist will be a useful tool for learning as well.
In the meantime, I prepared my camera to take pictures and video of invertebrates I find in my neighborhood. I created a basic layout for the documentary, and familiarized myself with the “New York is Wild!” page on iNaturalist. I found out that it’s easier to find wasps outdoors right before the fall season, since that is the time they do their last-minute food foraging for their colonies. During the colder weather, the colonies die off, leaving only fertilized queens to survive and hibernate in sheltered locations. We might find proof of this as we explore the parks. I also noticed that the amount of posts on the page was high during the summer, but weaned off toward the end of the end of the season, with very few posts for September and October. Could this be because cold weather kills off many of the insects people typically photograph for the webpage? Or are they migrating? I realized that many of the journal entries are regarding invertebrates that are easier to find in the summer, such as fireflies, bees, cicadas, horseshoe crabs, and katydids.
Another possible reason for the diminishing frequency of posts is that perhaps cooler weather is correlated to people going outside less often. Therefore, members of the project would have less opportunities to take pictures of invertebrates. A journal entry about mud snails on the beach was made in July, for example. I doubt there would be similar posts nowadays because people don’t typically go to the beach in late October.
It’s interesting how participating in a Citizen Science project can lead to discoveries in the social sciences in addition to the biological science the project is designed for. This realization goes to show how important for science metacognitive processes are, as described in Surrounded by Science.
