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.
Monthly Archives: October 2013
28
Oct 13
Artur – Weekly Update 10/27 – 11/2
As I researched invertebrates, I found that the scientific definition of the term is any animal that doesn’t possess or develop a vertebral column. Surprisingly, however, “invertebrate” isn’t a category in phylogenetic trees, which are taxonomic classifications of all Earth’s organisms. The categories are:
Domain –> Kingdom –> Phylum –> Class –> Order –> Family –> Genus –> Species
To get to the invertebrate classification, you would look in the domain, “Eukarya.” Within that domain, there exists a kingdom called, “Animalia.” This kingdom has many phylums, none of which are named “invertebrates,” but many of them containinvertebrates. Therefore, invertebrates are any organism within the animalia kingdom without a spine. These can include not only insects, but crabs, worms, jellyfish, mollusks, starfish, spiders, and countless other organisms.
Because we don’t have scuba equipment, the majority of our studies encompass land invertebrates.
As we walked through Central Park, we found it very easy to locate invertebrates, especially insects. The ground was very damp that day, and insects were abundant. Plenty of ants crawled across the ground. Ants were the easiest invertebrate to spot. Other invertebrates scurried away quickly as we exposed them and were difficult to capture. They naturally learned to have an aversion to humans.
I usually don’t remember encountering this many insects as I walk through parks. I wonder if this is because I take them for granted and don’t pay attention to them, or maybe this has something to do with the wet environment. According to the wisdom of Google, ants and termites are easy to spot because they like to come out after rain in order to dig down in soft soil to plant their eggs. Especially termites, which like to lay eggs in underground nests and wall interiors. Many air-breathing organisms, including earthworms, come up to surface during the rain when their natural habitat gets flooded.
My next trip will be to Prospect Park, and I’m curious whether it will lead to as successful of a find as this trip did.
21
Oct 13
Saul – Weekly Update 10/13 – 10/20
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…
21
Oct 13
Syed – 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.
20
Oct 13
Artur – 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.
