Explorations

Yerlin Gomez

November 8, 2013

I live in Brooklyn Sunset Park. In my neighborhood there are two major avenues which is 5th and 8^th avenue. If you walk in those avenues you will notice that there is a garbage can on every street. There is also more littering activity in those avenues. I live on 7^th Avenue and there are no city garbage cans. The only garbage cans that you see are private garbage cans from houses and the one building on my corner. The only rodent activity I notice in my neighborhood is the 4^th avenue and 45^th street train station. I do not really notice any rodent activity on my block or in my house. I do sometimes notice spiders but that’s about it. This does not really concern me because they are only spiders and they are very small compared to a rodent. .

 The environment  where I took these pictures was in the Bronx, where I take the train, it is about 20 mins from where I live. There are a few fast food restaurant around this area, there is a Burger King, little Caesar and McDonalds, the rest of the area is fill with grocery stores and delis. Although there are fast food restaurants, there are no sign of rodent activities because every food places make sure their environment is clean to attract customers. Also the trash cans are never too full because it gets taken out at least once a day. The trash are mostly filled with empty bags of chips, paper bags and water bottles. Unlike the first assignment that showed an area which have been infested with rats on every street and Conner, this environment doesn’t have rats or any rodent activities because it is kept clean.

 

By Beatrice Obeney

The picture above is in color. We can see the colors that are reflected off surfaces. The sunlight illuminating the setting in the picture is white. This means it is a mixture of different spectra. The leaves are green because they’re reflecting that wavelength of light back at us. But all the other wavelengths of light are being absorbed by pigments that transform that energy into chemical energy.

The picture above shows the previous one in black & white to emphasize the amount of light being reflected off of various surfaces in the image.

This image is a separate photograph taken taken with a filter over the camera lens that lets only infrared light pass through. Infrared is a type of radiation given off by heat sources. Here, infrared can illustrate to us places that are hot because they’ve been absorbing the sunlight. Take a look at the branches. They aren’t absorbing light so they remain dark. Look at the leaves and how bright they appear. Even the leaves in the shade are giving off an infrared signature.

I chose to take pictures from around my neighborhood. I live in the bronx. Theres a lot of garbage cans around my block and there was a stack of garbage outside but im pretty sure the super did that because the garbage is being picked up tomorrow. the garbage cans seem to be full because theres a lot of food places around my area – i have pictures that show burgerking, popeyes, wendys and sam’s deli. Although there was a lot of garbage, i did not see any rodents what so ever. but, in the night time around the garbage pile you can hear rats walking around and i believe its because of the smell of food in the garbage. it does not concern me as much though because the rats are only around when the garbage is outside at night, which of course the garbage collectors come and get in the morning. i can’t really compare this to the first article we read because there was never any concern or rat issue in my neighborhood.

Day 1

Borough Hall Park is littered with rats. You can’t walk through it at night without the sounds of rustling in the bushes and leaves on the ground. At first glance, you’d think there were many squirrels prancing around. But during the day, you never see any gray squirrels. On closer inspection, you’ll notice they’re rats. Walking towards the subway, I ran into the above sight. The rat was covered with flies and someone had stepped on it, which exposed the innards. How did it die? Borough Hall park is filled with rodent baiting stations filled with anticoagulant poisons. These poisons cause anything that consumes them to bleed to death internally.

Day 2

The next day, someone(s) obviously stepped on the body some more. Once again, this juvenile rat was covered in flies. While it was cool out, there should have been many maggots covering it. But there were none.

Day 3

One day later and someone else obviously stepped on the body. It was covered with flies again, yet no maggots.

Day 4

On the fourth day, the rodent corpse was still present. As I knelt down to take the picture, someone walked right over it. New Yorkers are very oblivious… Still no maggots on the corpse. By the end of the day, the body was finally disposed of. Very little decomposition occurred since there were now maggots breaking down the corpse. The lack of maggots despite the numerous flies probably results from the poison effecting the development and growth of the maggots.

Poison

There is obviously a rodent problem in our city. These problems came from the introduction of rats when Europeans arrived and from the activity of our citizens. How many times have you seen people feeding animals in the parks? How many times have you seen overflowing trash receptacles on the corners of the streets? There is ample food waste that can support the millions of vermin in the city. The poison is a temporary solution. It does not address the abundant food waste that can feed the vermin.

The picture above shows a corpse that was found at the same time as the initial image at top. This illustrates that the bodies of these rats do not decompose like we expect where they would rot and be consumed by maggots.

What happened?

Why are these birds found dead on the ground? In the Fall, many birds begin to migrate to warmer climates. While New York is mostly concrete and asphalt, large pockets of green space found within the likes of Central Park and Prospect Park support stopovers for these migrating birds where food and shelter is abundant. Butif this environment is so good for them, why did I find these guys on the ground in such a state? Check out this article to find out what is going on and why this is happening. This is an example of the effects that human activity have on the nature around us. Check out this other article that illustrates how a singular event can steer migratory birds off target and cause distractions.

The images above illustrate a common problem in our city. We utilize poisons to in baiting stations to help us do away with the rodent infestation. Likewise, we generate industrial pollutants that seep into our environment. Here’s an extreme case of industrial pollution that has resulted in mass die-offs of fish in rivers in China.

The article on CNN states:

Authorities cleared about 110 tons of dead fish from a 40-kilometer section of the river … The cause of the deaths, provincial environmental officials said, was the discharge of high levels of ammonia into the water by a local chemical plant…

Take a look at the original article for some disturbing images demonstrating the scale of the die-off.

Students usually have some concerns about how to do well in class. Sometimes students take a passive role in class and suffer from not finding a way to be responsible for learning the material on their own. So what did other students learn after it was too late?

See what other students say. You can find tips from previous students here.

In this Learning Community, students will learn how to ask questions, summarize findings, and support conclusions with sources and evidence. Students will question and interpret data from the living world as they develop their math, science, and English skills.

We are all born scientists! We explore the world. We incorporate our observations into the decisions we make.