Patrick and I had discussed with Artur (video-captain) what our documentary will look like. We want to have an interview with Jay Holmes, the Citizen Science advocate that spoke in our class. We’ll use bits of the interview in the video.
Blog
11
Nov 13
Saul – Weekly Update 11/3 – 11/10
This week, we have begun to discuss the co-authored research paper. We mapped out the sections that are required for the paper and discussed how to acquire that information. We took out a few textbooks from the Brooklyn College library. The books seem to include most of the relevant information needed.
11
Nov 13
Artur – Weekly Update 11/10 – 11/16
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.
10
Nov 13
Syed – Weekly Update 11/9 – 11/16
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.
06
Nov 13
Saul – Weekly Update 10/27 – 11/3
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.
05
Nov 13
Artur – Weekly Update 11/3 – 11/9
This week, we went to Prospect Park. Invertebrates were more difficult to find than they were in Central Park. Finding them took quite a bit of digging, walking and looking around. I got quite a bit of luck as I checked underneath the bark of a dead tree. As soon as I peeled it off, termites scattered, and I found some eggs, snails, and a centipede.
29
Oct 13
Saul – Weekly Update 10/20 – 10/27
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.
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.
