On Sunday September 7th 2014 I attended the Macaulay Honors college BioBlitz from 12pm-4pm at the Bronx Botanical Gardens. I was assigned to the microbes group.
BioBlitz was not my first choice in the way to spend my Sunday afternoon, but the experience was pleasant. The guide that we had was a professor at Brooklyn College. It was obvious that she was not only well versed in her field, but also extremely passionate. She took the time to converse with the students on several occasions, telling stories of her path towards her career and her college days.
Our group’s contribution to accounting for the diversity of species within the Bronx Botanical Gardens entailed taking soil samples from three locations in the gardens. The samples we took were to be later sent to a lab to extract the DNA and show how many different microorganisms were in each soil sample. As a child I was always the type of kid to go digging in the dirt, so I had no issue with the assignment. Our guide made sure to wait until the end of the event before informing everyone that when we were digging in the rose garden the top soil was mostly manure. Luckily, we did not touch the samples so that we didn’t contaminate it with the bacteria on our own hands. Overall, Hiking through the woods on a hot Sunday afternoon was not horrible. I learned about carnivorous plants and relived a child hood memory of digging in the dirt. Our group was one of the only groups to go off trail.
The event as a whole was informative and an interesting experience. I am glad Macaulay added the program to the curriculum.
