Our Teach-In went great.  All of the kids were very interested and engaged, and they were never difficult.  Everyone did a great job cutting out different fans for the turbine we made, and then we had them design them to have spirals and different designs so that when they spun they would create a very interesting picture.  The kids were very engaged and made very effective fans, and used cool ideas to make theirs better.  One idea that worked very well that we saw was one kid decided to make small slits farther inward to the center to let wind run through, and his was the fastest of them all.  I had a lot of fun teaching them and I saw a lot of cool turbines I had never thought of making before, our Teach-In was a success.

The Teach-In went a lot better than I thought it was going to go.  The assembly in the morning was entertaining, my teach-in group was amazing and the closing assembly was interesting.  

My group was restyled and the activity was to restyle your clothing.  At first I thought that it would be really difficult for them to think of ideas, but everything flowed really well.  We gave an introduction talking about what we did over the past few weeks; we used our script as a guideline, but only read off of it once in a while.  After that they got right to work.  I thought that an hour and 45 minutes would be enough time, but the time went by really quickly and a couple people weren’t able to finish.  We told them to stop working fifteen minutes prior to the end of class.

 The kids were great, a lot of fun, and very respectful.  We played music while we they working, which meant that the only real sound was the music and Sadie, Maddie, and I helping out the people who needed it.

I really enjoyed the teach-In day, and once again it went a lot better than I thought it would (which was a big relief)   

 

The Teach-In was an amazing success. I loved doing this project and I am so glad it all paid off in the end. I thought the day went so good. The first session was not as good as the second one because I grew more and more idea’s as the first session was going on. The information part went great because I made comparisons so the children could understand the numbers and the size of what we could save. I also thought it was awesome how the kids loved the activity. They all made really cool bottles and also were using recycled materials.  From the videos that we saw I learned so much stuff. From FLOW I learned how bottled water was the same as tap water and how much money is spent on it every year. It was ridiculous to see how much money is spent on that much stuff. I also learned some things from the video’s our classmates made. Nothing truly factual but I learned about the other organizations my fellow student’s worked on and got to see what they wanted to explore in the world of sustainability. At the end of the day, I enjoyed working at the park. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In a way, it was sort of amusing and enjoyable. I really enjoyed the entire day and I am so glad to see it all was a success.

I was very happy with the way the Teach-In went. My Group got explained our topic fairly easily to the kids and they seemed to enjoy learning about it. I also had a lot of fun during the Teach-In. Our first group we only had one seventh grader and everyone one else was a sixth or fifth graders. Therefore they were a little wild and hard to work with, because it was difficult to explain a complicated topic like green architecture to them. Once we got to start our activity, they seemed to like it though, because they got to add things that they liked to their houses (basketball courts, arcades etc.). Our second group we a few more seventh graders and mature kids, so it went much more smoothly. The most interesting part of the teach in I think was when we watched Flow. I found it pretty shocking how normal tap water is the same water in all of our bottled water. Even the biggest companies like Poland Springs, Aquafina etc, are the same as water as tap water. I also found it horrible how the coke a cola company was forcing people out of their homes in india so they put their giant plant there. I thought Flow was really fascinating.

I really enjoyed the Teach-In.  In the morning when we were setting up, it got pretty hectic and I started worrying about my group, but it all worked out.  We then started the day with the assembly.  We heard the band perform a song they wrote about Sustainability and it was really good, then they played our What We Did video.  Liam C., Nile, and I had made this 6 minute movie within 3 days and it turned out amazing.  We had a great photo montage at the beginning with good background music, good interviews with kids in our grade, and some ending photos of us setting up for the Teach-In.  We arranged it really nicely and we worked really well together.  After the video, there was a short explanation of how the day would go followed by everyone crazily piling out of the big room.  We each ran to our rooms and made some last adjustments before the kids arrived.  I helped my water group set up the last few things and then ran up to help Liam C. with his activity on green/renewable energy because he was all alone.  I also wanted to let some of the people in my group that hadn’t done much do something to help, since it was hard with a big group like ours.  I actually really enjoyed working with Liam on his activity.  I already had a really good understanding with the topic and knowledge about it because I’ve been studying it a lot as well, so I wasn’t just sitting around.  Me and Liam said equally the same amount of stuff and really got into it. We ran it well together, answered a lot of questions, gave the kids a good understanding of everything, showed them real examples, and then had them write a bill on what they would do as senators in one specific state.  I had taken a couple minutes to check on my group and make sure everything was okay, but I was pretty much with Liam for the whole time.  Once they were over we talked to Frank’s class about their feelings on how the activities went and there was a lot of positive feedback, which made us feel happy.  After that, we all went down to the auditorium for the last part of the Teach-In.  It started out with the What We Learned video, which was a little funny.  Then we watched a few clips from the film FLOW, which was administered by René.  Then there was an ending speech and it was all over.  We did so much work and took a lot of time for only a few ours of activities and presentations.  Wow.  However, I felt we learned a lot from this whole experience and it was good to do a project like this.  For me, the Teach-In turned out great.  I worked really hard getting ready for it and did a lot in my water group to set up, then helped Liam a lot during his actual activity.  I, as well as the rest of my group, was really worried about the Teach-In during the previous week, but it turned out a lot better than I planned.  I did a lot more work than I was supposed to and enjoyed it, let others in my group participate a lot, helped out a friend with his activity, and made an awesome What We Did video.  So, the whole day was a success.  Our award for doing such a great job was going out to get snacks, which was fun, followed by all cleaning up a park in Chinatown.  What a great day.   

 I did my sustainability workshop with Edith on animal rights. For my visits, I went to this animal shelter called Animal Haven. It is an nonprofit organization that is a no-kill shelter. One thing I discovered that sustainability doesn’t always have to be about parks, trees and global warming. Edith was discussing in our workshop that in the word sustainability there is the word sustain. All we are trying to do, is help sustain our world the way it is and make it better and healthier. We must sustain it and make sure nothing goes down hill. That is all sustainability is about; no matter how small or how big of a thing you are trying to fix, it’s all about sustaining our Earth.   I thought the sustainability workshop was fun. Although, sometimes I felt like my workshop was slightly sloppy and not as thorough and meticulous as it should’ve been. Overall, I got good feedback from the kids and they all enjoyed it. I definitely think they all went away with something about animals. I was in the coordinator committee and it was hard. Next year, the teacher’s should give everyone an extra week than what we had this year because everything was way too last minute. Overall I thought it was a lot of fun and I liked cleaning up at that park. I also thought Liam C.’s and Nile’s videos were really good. 

 To start of wiith, Liam’s presentation rocked and had many good ideas.

The eighth grade “Teach In” went way better than I had expected but we didn’t get to a good start.  Me and David had our materials ready but the first group weren’t as interested as I thought they’d be.  Our teach in activity might not have been in their first choices at all.  Then again it was early in the morning and some of them might have been tired.  Me and David started to talk about the homeless people and then got everybody to put on handsiatizer.  Everybody than put on gloves and we started to make sandwiches.  The whole basis was to make sandwiches, cards and play games related.  The fiirst group seemed to have no business in doing this.  Like I said before it seemed as if they were worn out.  By the time I had the other group, the other group was perked up and ready to go.  The powerpoint that we wanted to do in the first session wasn’t working so we ended up doing in the second session.  This time more facts from the powerpoint came out good.  I then decided that we should stop the powerpoint after several slides and to get to action.  We then started making sandwiches and we gave each kid a chance to put a diffrent song on so we could make our activity more “hip.”  The kids loved this and made the sandwich making more enjoyable than the last.  We continued with the song playing and we moved on into making cards.  These cards were very nice and well thought out.  We then moved on into playing a hangman game for candy and sandwiches.  The candy was very appealing to the 5th and 6th grade.  Almost everybody tried their their hardest and was awarded a prize.  They then wrote there reflections and each walked out with more knowledge of homeless people struggling like the guy who used to be on the corner close to America Apperal.  The feed back we had gotten from people in Victor’s class was very good and they told us a lot.

Just to say I liked the imformation that Rene had given us from Lily’s Mom’s movie and the other facts that she had alone.   I’m glad we did this project because now I know what Wendy, Heather, Frank, Lynne, Victor, Matthew, Momii and Sarah have to deal with when they have splits and also our other teachers.  THANK YOU SO MUCH SaRaH and MoMiI!!

Yesterday’s workshops were a success!  I believe that each of the students participating in our workshop had overall a great experience.  I was really nervous at first, but then I realized that the students were wanting us to succeed as much as we wanted ourselves to.  They came to our workshop prepared to have fun, and their attitude really helped with our success.  All the comments were positive, in the first workshop, the only criticism was that we should not look at our lines as much.  Being more prepared the second time, and now reading off-script, really made the second workshop a lot better.  My favorite part was watching the kids’ expressions when they found a bone in their pellet.  They were so excited and eager to keep going.  The Flow movie after the workshops was very informative, easy to understand, and had great facts, that I didn’t even know about, revealing the secrets of big companies like Coca-Cola and Nestle.  I am definitely going to think twice before buying bottled water!  I thought that the park at the end of the day, was a good idea of finishing off the project, besides the fact that my feet would barely move, I was so mentally tired.  Overall it was an exhausting day, but at the same time very worthwhile.  

Malcolm

 

I thought Flow was a very good movie.  There were so many interesting fact.  Some of the chemicals that kill weeds go into the water.  Some scientists at Columbia University tested these chemicals on male frogs.  The frogs actaully grew ovaries and made it capable for them to have babies.  It’s known for men to drink water with those chemicals in it to lose sperm.  One of my favorite parts in the movie was when  some people had a fake brand of water which was called eau du robinet (Which is tap water in french) and had people test it out.  nine out of 10 people said the water was better then tap water.  However, they did not know that  the water they were drinking was tap water.   This movie was so scary.  I thought this water problem was far away but it’s not.  Everyone is running out of water.

Malcolm 4/6/09

Irena Salina Rene

 

 

 

What struck me was that schools and some local governments are trying to prevent people from buying bottled water.  I always thought the local government was for bottled water.  There’s many issues related to water.  Locally (United States) the problem is that bottled water is worse for the environment because when it is being imported the gas causes pollution.  Also tap water is healthy and making the bottles for bottled water isn’t.  Issue with water internationally is that industries are restricting people from drinking fresh water because they have bought out that area and are making them pay for the water.  http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/movies/12flow.html?ref=movies.  This is causing the people who were drinking from these water sources to have to drink in a contaminated pond.

 

Malcolm 4/6/09

Irena Salina Rene

 

 

 

What struck me was that schools and some local governments are trying to prevent people from buying bottled water.  I always thought the local government was for bottled water.  There’s many issues related to water.  Locally (United States) the problem is that bottled water is worse for the environment because when it is being imported the gas causes pollution.  Also tap water is healthy and making the bottles for bottled water isn’t.  Issue with water internationally is that industries are restricting people from drinking fresh water because they have bought out that area and are making them pay for the water.  http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/movies/12flow.html?ref=movies.  This is causing the people who were drinking from these water sources to have to drink in a contaminated pond.

 

Malcolm 4/6/09

Irena Salina Rene

 

 

 

What struck me was that schools and some local governments are trying to prevent people from buying bottled water.  I always thought the local government was for bottled water.  There’s many issues related to water.  Locally (United States) the problem is that bottled water is worse for the environment because when it is being imported the gas causes pollution.  Also tap water is healthy and making the bottles for bottled water isn’t.  Issue with water internationally is that industries are restricting people from drinking fresh water because they have bought out that area and are making them pay for the water.  http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/movies/12flow.html?ref=movies.  This is causing the people who were drinking from these water sources to have to drink in a contaminated pond.

 

Continue reading →

Malcolm 4/6/09

S8A Video chat

Nile, MIlo, Rene, Jonah, Thomas

 

I learned that students from Hotchkiss are making their classmates bring in cup from their house so they don’t waste paper cups or plastic bottles.  I think this is a good idea for LREI.  I know in the lower grades like kindergarten the kids bring in their own cups.  I think we should carry that on in the rest of the school.  I don’t think that most of the kids will agree with this but I think the principals will.  Some of the teachers at LREI have water bottles and that might inspire the kids to bring their own cup or bottle to school,  I don’t think we learned much from the kids at Hotchkiss.  The only thing I learned was what I stated earlier.  It doesn’t seem like these kids are very committed to their project.  Also the technology made it difficult.  The responses lagged.  I want to ask my group members what they thought of the video chat.  I didn’t speak with them a lot about that.  I wonder if they agree with me?

Malcolm 4/6/09

S8A Video chat

Nile, MIlo, Rene, Jonah, Thomas

 

I learned that students from Hotchkiss are making their classmates bring in cup from their house so they don’t waste paper cups or plastic bottles.  I think this is a good idea for LREI.  I know in the lower grades like kindergarten the kids bring in their own cups.  I think we should carry that on in the rest of the school.  I don’t think that most of the kids will agree with this but I think the principals will.  Some of the teachers at LREI have water bottles and that might inspire the kids to bring their own cup or bottle to school,  I don’t think we learned much from the kids at Hotchkiss.  The only thing I learned was what I stated earlier.  It doesn’t seem like these kids are very committed to their project.  Also the technology made it difficult.  The responses lagged.  I want to ask my group members what they thought of the video chat.  I didn’t speak with them a lot about that.  I wonder if they agree with me?

For my last and final visit I went by myself to the Museum of Art and Design, again. I didn’t work with an artist but I went just to look at the art and to see all the interesting things the artists did. There was things like, carved stacked up phone books, a seat made out of quarters, big pieces made out of combs, and more. I just looked around to see all the art and to think about what they thought of while they were doing it. What I learned about the environment is how all of this stuff could have been thrown away and into the landfills but instead it is being used as art. What surprised me was how much material was used. What was running through my head was things like, “How many quarters did they use?” “Where did they get it?” Everything was a real brainteaser. After seeing all of this stuff, I thought it was a great experience. Meeting Sabrina, working with her, seeing all the art, and everything else. I wasn’t able to take any pictures when I went there but I will show some things from the website that I saw.There was the carved phonebooks: This is the front side of the books but if you were to seethe back, you would see that it was flat with the bindings of the books. Also, there was the seat made out of quarters: The top part of that are all quarters touching eachother to create a chair. One other thing I saw was a piece made out of combs: This piece is made out of flat sided combs. The darker parts of the piece like her hair have all of the parts of the tongs while the lighter parts have some tongs missing.Overall, it was a great experience and i am glad i did it. 

In this project Jeff, Atlas, and I focused on Wind Energy.  I went to Bluestreak 4 times, and I stopped in Palm Springs at a Wind Turbine Farm.  Bluestreak is an organization in Chelsea Piers that is used for training, and all of Chelsea Piers is run on wind power.  So in the visits we found out different facts about Bluestreak and discussed what the people there really knew about the wind turbines.  The Wind Turbines were very interesting, and there were hundreds of them out in the desert. For our Teach-In we are going to be making our own wind turbine fans.  Before hand we will make the frame for the Turbines, but during the Teach-In we will be making the fans to power them, and try to power a lightbulb.  We are the Wind Wizards.

Our last three visits were: Wednesday, April 8, Wednesday, April 15, and Thursday, April 16.  On April Eighth we went to MFTA just like we had been doing for the last couple weeks, taking the V or E train to 36th street in Queens.  While we were on the train, Sadie, Maddie, and I were trying to figure out what we were going to do today.  We assumed that it would be sorting books (because moving furniture would be very difficult for us, and) no other activities became obvious to us.  After we got there and signed in, sure enough, we were sorting books.  Our job was to pick a shelf, look through each book from one end to the other, to see if it really had to do with art.  This was very difficult because more likely than not, it had to do with art.  Meanwhile, Johnese is also handing us new books that have recently come in.  The job was very overwhelming and although, between the three of us we completed 8 shelves, I didn’t feel that we had accomplished that much.  While we were sorting, Maddie found a very old, very vintage looking piano book, she asked to have it, and later gave it to her little sister.  As always, our time ended shortly, only having about an 1 1/2 each week.

On April 15 we took the trip to 36th street as always.  After we signed in, we got to work, knowing that we only had an 1 1/2 to work.  The first thing we did was get two long carts (we were wondering what it was for because we hadn’t found out what our activity for the day was going to be yet).  We then follow Chelsea (Johnese wasn’t present because of unknown reasons) to a huge pile of plastic bins on a very high shelf.  Ahmed was on a ladder and handed the box to Chelsea, who handed it to Sadie, who handed it to Maddie, who handed it to me so that I could organize it on the long cart.  We did this until there was no more space left on the cart.  We then took it to an aisle, where we organized and stacked the boxes on the shelves.  While we were doing this, we were also telling Chelsea about our ideas for the next day (our shopping day; the day where the organizations came in to shop).  We also told her some of our ideas for the Teach-In.  After hearing our ideas, she let us walk around and take some things that we could use for our final project.  She let us take stuff until the end of the time.  Before we left, we told her some of the questions we were thinking about asking for the survey we were putting together for the shopping day.  She told us something’s we should change and what was good.  After that, it was time to go.

On April 16 it was the shopping day and we got to leave school at 12! The whole day we had been feeling ambivalent about.  It was our last day, but we also knew it was going to be the most fun, and we were excited for that reason.  Before we left school we made photo copies of the survey.  We spent the whole time that day interviewing people.  This was the data that we had in the end:

SURVEY

1.      What organization are you from?

·        Art organization (1)

·        School (2)

·        Theatre Company (1)

·        Ailles (art organization)

·        Tonville HS

·        P.S.

2.      What is your most needed item from MFTA?

·        Love and respect

·        Fabric

·        Architectural Samples

·        Trim

·        Art Supplies

·        Paper

3.      What is something you love about MFTA?

·        n/a

·        free

·        all the availability

·        unpredictability

4.      Have you seen something that has inspired you?

·        things from a Macy’s parade made a Christmas scene (bows, reefs, ornaments)

·        hanging lantern (instillation)

·        mask

·        oak tag makes her students work larger

·        Yes (4)

·        No (0)

5.      What do you do or where do you go when you don’t find what you’re looking for?

·        Buy it (2)

·        Rosebrand (fabric

·        Build it Green

·        Find things on street

6.      What is something that you would change about MFTA?

·        Nothing (2)

·        Closer to Staten Island

·        Give wish list to donors

7.      Were you surprised by something you saw?

·        Been there since their first store in Brooklyn, 30 years ago

·        No (3)

·        Finding heavy black curtains for theatre

Once we were finished we shared our results with the Director of MFTA (the above is only the results from my survey).  She thought our results were very interesting.  We than said our sad, last goodbyes to Johnese and the MFTA staff.

 

 

 

Sophie, Anna, Meghan and I went to Macy’s for the Barkfast.  The “Barkfast” was an event in the main floor of Macy’s to benefit Animal Haven.  People could bring any kind of pet to this event, pay a small fee, then enjoy food for them and their pets, music, a raffle, and other stuff.  We were volunteers.  We all got Animal Haven volunteer t-shirts, which were pretty cool.  We were placed in different positions – Meghan was at the raffle counter, while the rest of us wandered up the aisle picking up trash and telling people where to go for the bathrooms.There were a lot of teeny tiny dogs in silly costumes, sometimes even matching their owners.  It was strange to look at those dogs, and compare them to the dogs we saw at Animal Haven.I found it kind of funny that at Animal Haven, they don’t treat the animals luxuriously at all, and that at the Barkfast things were the complete opposite.  At Barkfast, they treated the animals like little dolls, on display, but at Animal Haven, they didn’t dress them up at all.  I thought it was strange that the event was to benefit Animal Haven.Now that Sophie and I are preparing for our teach-in soon, we are able to put all the stuff we did at Animal Haven to good use.We plan to go more over the summer, because we really enjoyed working with Kendra and the animals. 

On tuesday, April 7 I went to see a movie on plastic with my mother and friend Kameron at the Lincoln center Walter Reade theater uptown.  The movie was called Addicted to Plastic!  The Rise and Demise of a Modern Miracle and it was directed by  Ian Connacher.  So, here’s how the evening went.  My mom, Kameron, and I arrived at the theater at 6:45 pm.  We walked over to the Think Outside the Bottle organization’s stand and talked to their regional organizer, John Stewart.  They were campaigning using tap water instead of bottled, like what we’ve been doing.  However, they have gotten even farther.  They have been trying to go against Nestle, the biggest bottled water company in the world, and through their campaign they have been protesting, giving out flyers, and having trials.  They even took our picture holding up a sign saying something along the lines of “no more nestle!”  It was already very interesting.  Close to 7:00, we poured ourselves a cup of water and walked into the screening room.  The show then started with the organizer of the event introducing herself and the theater.  She even mentioned how they had screened FLOW there the year before.  Then, she brought up Ian Connacher, the director, and he introduced his film and the small episode of Eco Trip: Water Bottle that would be screened before his movie.  So, Eco Trip started and was actually a very interesting 40 minute episode.  The host of it, David de Rothschild, explained how bottles were used in our daily lives and then went on to visit factories were bottles are made, factories where they used recycled bottles to create matter used for many other things, and talked to experts on the subject.  It was a very interesting episode of a very good show called Eco Trip, which focuses on many different and interesting topics and is on the sundance channel every week.  So, then Addicted to Plastic started.  The movie started out showing the cause of water bottles and what happens to them; where they end up and why.  Ian Connacher had gone to the part of the pacific ocean where all garbage meets and most of that garbage is made up of plastic bottles.  Then, Connacher led to how all of that happened and how bottles are made, how all plastic is made.  He talked about the history of plastic and where it has led to.  It was devastating how bad things were because of plastic.  However, the movie then showed all these different companies, organizations, stores, and groups that used the recycled plastic for many other things.  Some of these things were matter, soil, art, clothing, accessories, bags, etc.  It was amazing.  All of the possibilities.  All of these places tried hard to help this problem.  They reused everything.  I found this movie absolutely amazing.  Ian Connacher focused on everything possible.  How it happened, what it did, and how we can solve the problem.  It really got the message across.  After the movie was over, three panelists got up on the stage to answer various questions.  The three panelists were Ian Connacher, John Stewart, and senior scientist/Natural Resources Defense Coucil member, Allen Hershkowitz, Ph.D.  They all contributed to each question thoughtfully and I found it very good that they did, because there were a few things I hadn’t understood at first.  So, all in all, the night was great.  The show and movie combo was great and the panelists tied it all up well.  

This is a photo of the vast turbines that were in the desert.  Although you can not see the image in motion, about 1/5 of those turbines were not turning, but as far as the rest of them go they were working just fine.  I find it very smart that they took a very open area where not a lot of people live and turned it into a wind turbine farm.  I heard that that’s what it’s called when there are hundreds of wind turbines in one spot lined up.  I find these turbines very helpful and I think they put the open space out in the desert to good use.

This past Friday me and Liam.M went on our second trip to the Center for Architecture Foundation. This time, the people there were more prepared for us than last time. Last time we did not get much productive work done, and did mostly office work, but this time we got to take a look around their entire museum. I would say about 1/4 of the tour was about energy efficient architecture, and some of the information was very helpful and interesting. There was one building Sacramento that they had a picture of, that was made of energy efficient glass, and ran on only solar power. We also had a brief chat with Katherine Teegarden, a lady who works there and she gave us a brief description on a few of the green buildings that their organization has sponsored.

In the afternoon (the same day we went to Volunteers for Wildlife) we traveled 30 minutes down the road to the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary & Audubon Center.  (Below is a picture of the entrance.)  Here we met up with a guide (I don’t have his name) who showed us around the building.  There is a very big room, with little exhibits on different animals.  In one tank there was a huge fish and a turtle swimming side by side.  While we looked around this room our guide was getting chairs set up for the interview and getting the screech owl to show us up close.  As we did at the other interviews, we asked him a set of questions. We asked him what he thought of the bird-calling machines.  His response was much different than the answers from our other interviews.  The guide felt that bird calling was helpful for awareness about the owls and there was no scientific research that said this was harmful for the owls.  He basically compared it to a car horn honking.  It may be annoying, but it won’t kill us, same thing goes for the owls. He also brought up the topic of owls’ form of camouflage.  It was cool to learn, that eastern screech owls have more reddish fur, because there are more cedar trees in this part of the country.  Meanwhile, the northern screech owl has more of a grayish color to match the trees where it lives.  We even got to see a demonstration of this, and the screech owl’s back really did look like red tree bark.  (The owl living at the Volunteers for Wildlife had grayish coloring.)  Also the ear tufts of the owl are supposed to look like broken branches when the owl is resting on a tree.  When the owl feels threatened, it will puff itself out to look more intimidating.  If the owl is frightened it will make itself really skinny and the feather tufts will go straight up.The guide thought that the project of re-releasing the screech owls would finally be successful if the owls are living on their own, breeding and really getting comfortable and adapting to the park.  “What more could you ask for,” he replied. After the interview and seeing the Audubon Center’s screech owl we had a tour of the display room, where they keep historical objects and some reptiles.  And after thanking the guide we were on our way back to the city after a very long day.  (Note: after leaving the Audubon Center we made our way to the cemetery a few yards in front of the building and saw Theodore Roosevelt’s grave.)

Yesterday Ava, her parents, and I went to Volunteers for Wildlife in Long Island.  Like the Raptor Trust organization in New Jersey, this place focuses on the  rehabilitation of sick and injured wildlife, along with education for the public.  We arrived there in the morning and met up with Jason Wanaselja, who works at the wildlife center.  We basically interviewed him, asking mostly the same questions as usual to compare his answers with the other interviews we’ve done.    The Volunteers for Wildlife was a great place for us to visit because one of the owls that were initially released in Central Park now lives here.  During the interview they brought out this particular screech owl.  He was rescued from Central Park after being found in the park multiple times facedown on the ground.  (We still don’t know exactly what could have caused the owl to be facedown, we just know that he was struggling and would have been better in captivity.)  It was so great to be this close to the owl without a fence between us.  The screech owl was beautiful.  His feathers were grey and brown; his perfectly round eyes were like marbles.  (Below is a picture of the owl we saw.)         While observing the owl, Jason showed us the different sized metal bands used to keep track of the birds/owls, population and individuals.  He believes that bird-calling machines are neither bad, nor good.  Like Andy he agrees that they should be used in moderation, maybe once every couple of weeks.  However, he doubts that bird-calling machines could have made the owls disappear in the first place.  Likewise, Jason mentioned that (a new topic of) bird feeders should be used in moderation.  He feels that they disrupt the natural cycle if used too often.  If used too much, the migratory birds might not feel the need to leave, thus complicating the food chain.  Bird feeders on the other hand are very pleasant for the birds and for the community if they are used properly.  The best thing for someone outside the city to do is make their backyard bird friendly by having natural food sources/habitats.        At the end of the interview Jason took us for a short tour of the birdcages outside where we saw a barn owl, red-tailed hawk, and a black and white bird with orange eyes and beak.  The visit was overall very pleasant and laid back.

I am supposed to call a number Ian from slowfood USA gave me. I’m going to call him today but I’m not sure if Laurence and Milo are going to join me. I’m going to find out if they are going to join me and then I will call Ian.

This Sunday, Anna, Meghan, Edith and I had our final visit with animal haven. This time though, we helped out with an event called Barkfest. It was an event at Macy’s that supports Animal Haven.  You come and bring your dogs to socialize, get your picture taken with a photographer, eat and be entertained with dogs who dress up and do tricks. There was also a raffle where numerous prizes were given out and goodie bags. We arrived there around 9:00 and stayed there till 10:30. We worked with Kendra this time.  Mainly helping direct people, doing small errands and helping clean up. We got to meet some very interestingly dressed, but sweet dogs and their owners. It was funny how sometimes you could definitely tell who the dogs owner was and how much they were alike. There was a chihuahua named Tequila, whose tongue would hangout stupidly, a dog named Jilly who could do numerous tricks (even play poker) and many more. The event was fun and we got some volunteer shirts and we left with leftover goodie bags. We said our goodbyes to Kendra and the staff and we told her we might be coming back in the summer. We love Animal Haven and our visits were always enjoyable. For the teach in, we will split up; Mehgan and Anna will be doing worm composting and Edith and I will be doing animal rights. We thank animal haven for allowing us to work with them and we appreciate the organization greatly. 

These are some interesting statistics that I found on the USGBC ( United States Green Building Council) website that I found interesting.In the United States alone, buildings account for:     •    72% of electricity consumption,•    39% of energy use,•    38% of all carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions,•    40% of raw materials use,•    30% of waste output (136 million tons annually), and•    14% of potable water consumption.

               E           energy consumption:

                        •           Buildings represent 38.9% of U.S. primary energy use (includes fuel input for production).  

•                                         . Buildings are one of the heaviest consumers of natural resources and account for a significant portion of the greenhouse                 gas emissions that affect climate change.  In the U.S., buildings account for 38% of all CO2 emissions. 

•                                                  . Buildings represent 72% of U.S consumption.  

                        – Adam 

 

 

 

 

Diana and I went to BARC again– it was great. The kitties were so adorable. But then, another cat fight occurred…Cherub was being unsociable. And Scratch (a feisty cat in the cage next to her) was being the same way. Suddenly, Scratch batted at Cherub, and following was an epic battle. No one won. Eventually they got bored of each other and went their separate ways- but I don’t think that’s gonna be it for the two of them. I met two other cats today– Marie and Theresa. They were cute, but Theresa kept batting at Sinatra through the cage. Speaking of Sinatra, he’s doing so well! He’s gotten a lot bigger than when I last saw him, and he totally reacts to the leather string. Though still very shy, I can tell Sinatra’s going to turn out into a great, loving and happy cat. He was originally put on hold, but his soon-to-be adopters changed their minds. I don’t know what happened and I sure can’t see why. In any case, this just strengthens my goal for these cats to be adopted. They’re amazing– every one of them– even Cherub.

A couple of days ago Harry (He is in my group) and a couple of other people visited the Museum of Arts and Designs. Neither Liam or I were available, so we wanted Harry to tell us some of the stuff he learned if any of it was somewhat useful. He said that there were not any sculptures made from recycled materials, but they did take recycled materials and turned them into everyday pieces of furniture such as bookcases, chairs, dressers etc. This might actually more sustainable than sculptures because you can use these pieces of furniture in your daily life, and it would also make buildings across the world greener to use recycled material as their primary source for furniture.

Diana and I went to BARC again, but this time Aaron and Isabella came along! We all had a lot of fun playing with the cats. However, there were two new kittens! Enter: incredibly adorable Cherub and Sinatra. Cherub has white fur, combined with that of a tabby. She is incredibly shy, and when I went there, I saw something that really disturbed me. One of the animal caretakers was poking and prodding at Cherub, holding her down with plastic gloves. Cherub was being extremely unsocial, hissing and biting and batting and scratching, she even went under her little bed! The caretaker still held her, apparently ‘socializing’ her. I suppose it was what they needed to do in order to get Cherub adopted– but still– it was horrifying to watch.Next to Cherub was adorable little Sinatra. Sinatra is a shy domestic shorthair, who goes to the back of her cage and shrinks from any attention. She is so incredibly scared that it overpowers her feline instincts. My dad began teasing her with a sting of leather (he likes to make leather bracelets and such), something that most cats can’t resist batting. But Sinatra only shrunk away, eyes wide with fear. Eventually, after a lot of coaxing, my dad got him to come a little closer so we could pet him. Sinatra showed no signs of enjoyment and went into her littler box. I hope Sinatra become more social and happy! Another thing that happened was a cat named Provenzano (who sat on my lap the first time I went to BARC) started hissing when I was trying to get Sinatra to play. At first I didn’t understand, but then I read her sign. He loves humans, but hates other cats. However humorous this may seem at first, if you think about it, it’s a little depressing. I’ll keep you updated on the latest cat fights and make sure to note more cats in the future! 

On April 2, Thursday, last week Me (Nile), Rene, Thomas, Malcolm, Jonah, Milo, and Harry, video chatted with the Hodgkiss Boarding School in Connecticut which had a Sustainability Club. Their Sustainablity Club’s goal was to get their big school to do as much as possible that was sustain able for example, instead of using/selling plastic poland spring bottle in lunchrooms they promoted kids to go and get water bottle and bring them around the school. Additionally, they had an idea of instead of the schools using plastic bags to hold trash, they said to the kids to at least have a tote bag were you can put things like lunches or not greasy or leaky garbage. We told them about our ideas and our Teach In day and what we are going to do for that. Additionally, we exchanged websites and screenames, like they told use of this website called greenpuff.com where it can track the world pollution, and it gave me an I idea and it gave me another idea so I researched tracking population and I found that google has a population tracker in production, and will be available soon. The Website is http://www.google.org/powermeter/ For more websites on Googles’s mission visit, http://www.google.com/corporate/green/clean-energy.html

I had a nice time talking to Sasha at BabyCakes.  She told me a lot of the store.  She started of by saying that Baby Cakes tries to be different.  They know that the city loves sugar, flour and butter cream.  Baby cakes are all natural organic and use different alternates.  No Wheat, no gluten, no dairy, no casein, no eggs and kosher.  Sweeteners are used rarely since every thing is natural.  The store never uses white sugar or any kinds of toxic sweeteners.  Most products are sweetened with agave nectar which is a natural kind of sugar from cactus and is better for diabetics.  Like whole foods earth bakery Baby Cakes is 100% vegan bakery.  They do not use nuts but they use coconut juice but the FDA says that coconut is a nut.  No animals or byproducts are used at all.

“Hours of Operation
Two for One Monday: 10am-8pm or until we sell out
Tuesday-Thursday: 10am-10pm
Friday-Saturday: 10am-11pm
Sunday: 10am-8pm” 

Here’s a link to BabyCakesNYC video about the store that I visited.

http://vimeo.com/3963229

On Thursday, Rene, Malcolm, Nile, Milo, Jonah, and I set up a Skype video chat with Hodgkiss; a boarding school in Connecticut.  We were supposed to be talking with a school in Australia as well, but the time difference plus them going on a school break made things a lot harder.  After finally getting the video chat to connect, we had some trouble with static and hearing each other, but the problem was solved within minutes. We were contacting each other because we were all focusing on the topic of water.  At their school, they have been taking votes and making petitions as well as comparing and contrasting tap (fresh) water and bottled water.  Also, when it comes to school merchandise, they give all students a reusable travel bottle at the beginning of the year, and sell them throughout the year.  In addition to focusing on water, they have also been helping other causes.  For example, they sell bags that people can use for shopping and carrying their stuff.  A better alternative to plastic and paper bags.  And, being a boarding school, they told students to take quicker showers, not to waste water, turn off lights as often as possible, and use composts.  Excluding those last few things, we have been trying to get LREI do the same.  We try to save energy, save water, and use reusable objects.  However, we are still trying to get people to use reusable bottles because we use so many cups in our school per day and thats not good.  Going back to the video chat, our group worked very well together.  At first, it was somewhat of a mess and we were all interrupting and talking at once, but once we got ourselves organized, we asked good questions, let each other speak, and covered all the topics we had well.  We can’t wait to get in contact with the Australian school once they’re off break.      

On the same day of our interview with Andy Stone (4/4/09), we also went to the 26 year old non-profit organization called The Raptor Trust, located in New Jersey.  After lunch, Andy drove us to The Raptor Trust — it was about a thirty-minute ride.  Andy said we were very fortunate that it didn’t rain that day. The Raptor Trust is a rehabilitation center that takes in injured, sick or orphaned wild birds.  The center’s main focus is to educate people about these wild birds, especially birds of prey. Ava’s and my visit to the center was just an ordinary visit, mostly just looking at the birds and playing with the stuffed ones in the souvenir shop.  We were pretty much the only ones there, my mom, and I, Ava, Andy, Andy’s son Adam.  We had no person to interview or work that could be done there.  The center was surrounded by swamp and tall thin trees.  It was very windy and cold that day, and each time a gush of wind came the trees would rock back and forth.   The Raptor Trust is very neatly laid out.  I thought perhaps it would look like an animal hospital or a veterinary-type office but it did not.  There were huge outside wooden cages with fence where each bird is kept, and one had to walk around each one like a maze.  Each bird had its own painted background, a tree and a wooden sleeping area.  Outside the cage is a sign identifying the bird and giving some information about it.  There must have been at least 30 birds outside.  Some were hard to see within their cages.  The most interesting birds we saw, in my opinion, were the bald eagle, the turkey vulture and of course the screech owl.  When we saw the screech owl it was inside its wooden house.  It was great seeing the birds up-close. After around forty minutes of looking around we decided to leave.  The visit was free, but at the entrance each one of us took turns putting money in the donation box.  Below is a picture of a screech owl resting happily in his wooden house, sorry that the picture is a little blurry, the double layered fence was not good for taking photos through.  

Yesterday Ava, and my mom Elyse and I went to New Jersey to visit my mom’s old friend Andy Stone.  Andy is a Director at a non-profit group called The Trust for Public Land, which is an organization that works to preserve land and maintain animal habitats, among other things.  Andy and his six-year-old son Adam picked all of us up at the train station and drove us to his house to get some lunch.  While we were eating our bagels we interviewed Andy.  Andy’s interview mainly centered on his own knowledge of habitats and birds compared to just the Screech Owl.  At first I was apprehensive about interviewing him, because he doesn’t exactly work with the owls, so his answers might not have been beneficial.  However after interviewing him I realized that Andy really knows what he is doing, and that apprehensive attitude disappeared.  We learned a lot yesterday, but three new facts that we learned are… 

• 1.  Andy believes that our topic of Screech Owls is sustainable because the status of one species affects another species.  An example of this is the food chain.  If there are more horned owls, a species that preys on Screech Owls, there will probably be a rapid decline of Screech Owls, and an increase of a Screech Owls’ favorite meal, rodents.  Or there could be an under population of prey.  Everything is intertwined, that is why we have to work hard to save the Screech Owl species because by just saving one, we are really saving many different species of animals.  (This fact I am going to save for our teach-in because it was really helpful and one of the clearer responses we received.) 
• 2.  We also learned that that Andy was indifferent about the bird-calling machine.  He disliked the fact that it stresses the owls out and if played too often may interfere with their mental health.  However, he says that since birdcalls help people see the birds it acts as awareness/education.  The more people know about something, the more they will do to help it. 
• 3.  One reason Andy thinks the owls disappeared in the first place is because some owls only like to nest in one type of tree.  If those kinds of trees are cut down or diseased, the owls would have no other place to nest of their choosing and that fact can ultimately kill them. 

Andy was very helpful, and the entire time of our stay gave us useful information on topics such as habitat or predators and prey.  His interview definitely broadened our approach on the owls and made us realize that so many topics center on just one creature.  Below is a picture of Andy and his son Adam.  (See the next post for details of our adventure to The Raptor Trust.) 

Today, my group, Jonah, Thomas, Malcolm, Nile, Milo and I got the chance to have a meeting with another school from Connecticut which was a boarding school. The topic was about water. Originally we were also supposed to be meeting with another school from Australia, but the timing was all off and they were about to break for a school break. I was really excited to learn about the other schools sustainability project, and exchange notes. Something that I found really interesting was there project; which is trying to make there school more green, although Little Red is doing the same, they had different priorities being a boarding school, things such as faster showers; turning lights off when leaving rooms, and using composts. I think our team worked well staying on topic, and focusing on what we were talking about. We helped each other understand what they were saying when the static from the internet got to be too loud, etc. Something I’d like to do for next time is have a list of different questions for the Australian school; I think it will be more interesting if we don’t just have the same conversation over…

My fourth visit was with the Museum of Art and Design again. I went by myself but accompanied Sabrina (the artist at MAD). Last time I went to MAD, Sabrina was in the making of a wall hanging made out of recycled film and when I arrived I was happy to see it finished in the glass case outside. Because of the massive amount of film left over, Sabrina decided to make another one. This time she is making the film squares in different designs. This included sorting, cutting, placing, and sewing the pieces of film together. My job was to sort, cut, and lay the pieces out and Sabrina sewed them together. It was pretty easy to do that and I think it went very well. What interested me was all of the interesting people that come into the museum to ask questions. Most of the questions were ones I heard all day. “Where did you get this idea?” “ How are you sewing them together?” This is how I learned more and more about the art piece as the day went on. Sometimes it was hard to find a lot of one color film but in the end it worked out fine. After doing this work I felt like we had accomplished something. I had a great time doing it, and I was very much involved. Overall I had a great time and I am glad I did it.  

Yesterday Anna, Sophie, Meghan and I went to visit Animal Haven for the fourth time.  When we arrived, we knew the drill.  We went upstairs and began cleaning out the cages of the cats with leukemia.  This was a pretty important job, and I was a little surprised they let us do it.  We had to wash everything in the room with Clorox and bleach to make sure the leukemia didn’t spread.  We all took it pretty seriously.  After that, we went downstairs to the boutique area to see if they had any other jobs for us.  There wasn’t anything to do at the moment, so we got to sit in the front windows and play with the little kittens on display.  They put the kittens on display because they’re pretty cute and draw people into the store.  It was all fun, we got to play with them and give them fake names, until one kitten (who we had named Gibble) pooped.  It was kind of gross, because the piece of poop got stuck in his fur, and we couldn’t get it out.  After that, we went upstairs again.  There was a group of new kittens to the shelter, who weren’t old enough to be put in the front windows yet.  They were the tiniest cats I had ever seen.  They were 5 weeks old, and only about the size of my hand.  Their eyes were so tiny and they were so cute.  Kendra (the volunteer coordinator) told us that most 5 week old cats were bigger than they were, so they might be dwarves.  We got to hold them for a while which was a really nice experience.  Although it was very fun and entertaining, it’s also an important job because the cats are interacting with humans for the first time.Something I’ve learned from Animal Haven is that there’s always a fun side and a not-so-fun side to doing a job.  Playing with little animals is fun, but scrubbing an entire room to get rid of germs isn’t that fun.  But it’s all really important, because both “jobs” contribute to the main goal we’re trying to achieve. 

Yesterday, Mehgan, Anna, Edith and I went to Animal Haven to help out some more. Kendra told us to be their at 12:30 and to stay till 2:30. At first, me and Edith washed up a new litter box, filled it with new litter and put it on the second floor. Then, all of us helped clean out the cat cages with leukemia. We washed them and scrubbed them down so the other cats without leukemia could use them.We were then allowed to play and socialize with the kittens in the front window. All of them had different personalities, yet all equally as sweet. We then were taken up upstairs to play with more kittens who were even smaller! It was a very fun relaxed experience, but we were still doing an important job; to socialize the kittens for when they are adopted. I had a lot of fun and it was a pretty relaxed day. We hung out with one of the other employees Mary who was very nice. We are having a little trouble with thinking about what we are going to do with our Teach In. We were thinking our topic could be animal rights, taking care of animals, or how animals are equal and then we could have a fun game or activity like jeopardy. We are also considering just focusing on the composting. We are hoping to talk to Sarah and Momii when we get back.

Lily and I went over the weekend on Saturday to Organic Avenue. Organic Avenue sell organic healthy food and drinks in a sustainable organization. The drinks are sold in glass containers for $5 but if you return them you get $2 back. This provokes people to recycle and reuse.

On Wednesday, Sadie, Maddie, and I went to MFTA, once again.  We left school kind’ve late because of a slight problem, but we weren’t that late.  When we got there we said hello to everyone, I asked where I should drop off my donation, and than we put our stuff away.  Our task for the day was to make shopping easier for the people, as always.  There were piles and piles of paper; the easiest way to transfer it from one place to the other was to roll it up.  We had a system.  Four people were the rollers (Johnese and a volunteer helped also) and than one person was the rubber-bander and the putter-inner, for lack of better words.  Maddie and I were part of the rollers and Sadie put the rubber bands on the rolls, which ended up being a very hard job. It was very hard to make tight rolls because the paper was so strong, which meant that more often than not, Sadie had to stretch the rubber band very wide in order to fit over the roll.

A couple minutes after we started, I got the first paper cut, than once we had made the plan of splitting up the jobs, there were a lot of paper cuts.  Sadie, having the most dangerous job had a band-aid and paper cut on every finger by the time we left, and she didn’t even cover all of them up.  The time always goes by very quickly, but since we were late it went by even quicker.  As usual we had lots of fun and got a lot of work done.

 

Even when we were finished my work wasn’t done yet.  I brought two manikins and a poster to donate.  I had to do some quick paperwork, but it was worth it, and I will be receiving a thank you letter soon.  So if you have anything you don’t want, but you think someone else might want it, I want you to know that the paper work is very quick, your helping someone else out, and you get a write-off on your taxes.  So you can’t go wrong.

Over spring break I went to California for the weekend and while I was there I got to learn about green architecture. Children from Bridgeport Elementary school used recycled materials to make benches for pedestrians to sit on. The teachers want the kids to look at “junk” with an eye to re-use. They ask them look at pictures of junk, and create drawings of a bench. Inspired by these drawings, the artist is asked to make a bench for permanent display.

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For my third visit I went to the Museum of Art and Design. I worked with an artist named Sabrina who is working on a piece that is made from recycled material. When I got there we went upstairs and we cleaned the tables down and got to work. Sabrina showed me the art project she was working on which was a wall hanging made out of old filmstrips. She would watch the film first and then we sort the film into colors and styles. By doing this she knows what colors she can put together. We then had to cut them to a shorter length so they could be sown together. After sowing 13 of them together it makes a small square, which is added to the big piece where all the squares will eventually be sown together. It really enjoyed doing the work. There was a lot of film that was truly interesting and I didn’t do the same thing the entire time. At first when the people came in to see what Sabrina was working on, I learned how she explained everything and what it was about and then after 3 people came in to look I was able to explain some things and show people the art. What struck me was how she had so much film. She had reels and reels of film. She explained to me how long that film was by the size of the real, where the film came from, and much more. What also surprised me was how she could sow all this plastic together. When I tried it, it was very confusing but she has been doing it a long time and she can go very fast. Something I learned about my own people skills is how to sow. I have never tried sowing and for my first time I think I did pretty well.The film was recycled from the Fashion institute of Technology (FIT). It was used to show the students film but when video and DVD were created they weren’t using the film anymore. Sabrina took the film and used it for this art piece, which is recycling. Some of my goals that I set for next visit are to be able to make an entire square for her ending piece. This includes sorting the film, picking the colors, cutting them down, and then sowing them together.            MAD was a great experience and overall I had an amazing time. I can’t wait to go back there.

For my second visit I went to Material for the Arts again with Sadie, Maddie, and Surayya. Last time we sorted jewelry but this time we were told to fold, sort, and stack materials. Some of the materials we stacked were old cloths, pillowcases, sheets, and other things like that. There was a large shelf and bin that were covered with unfolded parts of cloth. It was unorganized and needed to be fixed. Our job was to take down the stuff from the shelf and to neatly fold it and put it back on the shelf. We decided to put the smaller cloths on one side and the larger cloths on the other. After taking all the fabric off the shelves nad putting them back neatly, we had to also add the fabrics that were recently given to the shelves. Overall the task was completed and it went very well. What interested me was the cloth. There was so much cloth from so many places. Some of it looked like it was an old costume and some of it needed four people to fold because if was so big. What I learned about how this is sustainable is that instead of throwing away all this cloth, it is given to Material for the Arts where it is reused. Some of the goals I want to set for next time are to see more of the studio. It looks very interesting and I hope to come back there on my own time. Something I want to remember for our Teach In, on April 29^th, is the fabric. Maybe we could have people use recycled fabric as one of the materials they use when they do an art project. Overall it was very interesting and entertaining. We completed our task and I am curious to find out what we are going to do next time.

On Sunday, March 29, Rene went to interview Irena Selena, creator of the movie Flow and our classmate Lily’s mom.  I had tried to go, however I was returning from my second week of Spring Break in Guatemala.  However, Rene was able to take notes on the questions she asked and how Irena responded.  Here they are:

QUESTIONS

-Why did you decide to focus your film on water?  6 years. started colecting news artciles of water. one stood out-radio show, robert kennedy jr. riverkeppers. companies dumping chemicals in hundson, came into peopels bodyes.

-What are the 3 main bottling companies? nestle. comes from natural source. coca cola-dasani (filterd tap) dont take it from natural source. treated tap. figi. 

-Why is it better to drink tap than bottled water?  better for body, and inviormentally safe.

–How is bottling companies effecting the surrounding people? movement going on. bringing awareness. all around world. eyro. bure drink or pure hype. plastic doesnt get recycled. breast cnacer. sun to bottle damage. 

-What are people doing to stop water from being bottled?  petition, mayors meeting,banning from gornverment places. schools an univerities bahve banned water. london watned to bann in tocmpletel. minister of imvornment. comunities fightibg nestly,

–What chemicals are being put back into drinking water?  put into bottled water, from olastic. 

-Is bottled water cleaner than tap?  tap.        

-Where is the cleanest tap water in cortex of the states?  havent been drinking the tap from every state.

-What’s your opinion of bottling local tap water? smart. we’re stupid.

-What’s your opinion on the california drought?  in california are much more aware. they wont be water ing the lawn. 

-How has being environmentally conscious changed your way of living?  after a point in time you start to not htink of it. a man in india saves is wate, in the morining he washes his body, and wrings the towl out to youe the wter again. now i use bio degradable product. like sampoo usedm detergent. tries to minimize unkown chemicals. in india people fed there plant plates to their cows. kept telling us to lower the lights.

-Why don’t people trap their own rain water?  something that existed for humdreds of years. only thing is, you need a system. flushing toilets is flusing clean water.

-Why are big corporations going out of the U.S. to get water?  not american

-Do you think the world will run out of water?  places will have less water, a question of clean water. a question of water that is not poluted.

Think out side the bottle test:  How long it takes a bottle of water to disintegratehow many botles of water end up in land fields.  Garbage pace, 3x sixe of texes ends up in sea ends up in fish.  connection from trowing botle away to its journythink outside the bottle map.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency currently does not regulate 51 known water contaminanone man to regulate every sing bottle of water.  University banning bottled water.  Univerity of toledo.U.S. confrence of mayors.  

We Hope to keep in contact with Irena and learn more about FLOW and why this is such a good topic to focus on in sustaining the earth.    

During my spring break I went to Anguilla. The resort I stayed at was very concerned with the environment and are still continuing to make their resort more Green and sustainable. Two things that I observed, that really made a difference were, the solar powered golf cart, and their green house. By using solar powered golf carts you eliminate the unnecessary use of batteries, and with their green house they produce all of their own greens, and vegetables, and fruits, reducing pollution, by eliminating the travel of vehicles that would transport those same products grown in the green house. Attached are some pictures I took of these two things. 

Jacey and I had a great, informative tour at The Visionaire building, but have had some trouble since arranging appointments and tours with different “green buildings”. But, we realized that we learned almost all we possibly could about green architecture in Manhattan and decided we wanted to do something a little more, hands on. We thought maybe by working with organic food organizations we would be able to actually use our time productively verses using up other people’s time, which seemed to have happened with our Visionaire tour. Next Thursday at 3:30 Jacey, Jonah and myself are going to Whole Foods, for a tour and interview or something like that, to get a basic idea of the food industry, I presume, and than I think we’ll try to find smaller, organic food organizations/stores that are in need of assistance. So that’s what we have so far. I’ll spend time looking online and talking to people to find those other “smaller organic food organizations”.  I don’t think we will have any problems finding things to do, and using our time productively now that we’ve changed our focus. 

.A few weeks ago, Anna, Sophie, Meghan and I had our 3rd visit to Animal Haven in Little Italy. It was a Saturday, so we all found our way there leisurely. We were told to arrive at about 11, but they weren’t very strict with the timing. I guess that has to do with the casual vibe you get there. When we arrived, the two women who we had previously been working with were both out, so we were with Maya. Maya didn’t seem to like us as much as Kendra and Tiffany did. She kind of looked at us like we shouldn’t really be there, and we felt a bit unwelcome.We were instructed to clean out the cat cages, empty their litter (pretty gross) and refill their food and water dishes. We paired up and one person would hold the cat while the other changed the towels and cleaned up. Holding the cat was a harder job that you’d think, because even though cats have a cuddly and friendly image, the cats at Animal Haven were used to being mistreated previously, so they felt a little defensive around humans. I got many scratches on my chest from a cat who did not like being held. After we were all through, I felt satisfied. I didn’t really expect to feel that way, but seeing the cats look more comfortable in their clean, well-equipped cages made me feel like I had done a good deed.Afterward, we went out to walk a dog, Bella. Bella was pretty small and easygoing, so I guess she didn’t need four girls to walk her, but it was pretty fun. The other dog who was their, Crypto, was way larger, and deaf, so we weren’t trusted with him yet. Maya told us to walk Bella, so we put her in her little “Adopt-Me” vest and put her on a leash, and went outside. She looked very cute, and she seemed pretty excited. While on the street, a lot of people stopped to look at her and marvel about how cute she was. One lady seemed very interested, and asked more information about how to adopt her. Sophie ran back to the building to get more info, and maybe an information card for the lady to look at, but it turns out Bella wasn’t up for adoption. We were pretty embarrassed, but felt that it wasn’t our fault, because no one had informed us that she couldn’t be adopted.We stayed until the afternoon, and when we finally left we felt like we had a pretty good time.

Over the Break my dad was flicking through channels on TV, and saw something that said World’s Greenest Buildings on the USA channel. He told me to come and watch it to see if it was useful in my research of green architecture. The show was an hour long, documentary on different millionaires and big corporations who were making their homes and facilities more energy efficient. Although the documentary was not completely relevant to my topic, it did give some useful information about it. This one man, who was an entrepreneur and I cannot remember his name, spent about two years transforming his mansion on the island of Mallorca in Spain into a solar powered house. It was already a beautiful house with a view of a beach and skylights and everything, but he was devoted to making it green. Since Mallorca gets a lot of sunlight, He put solar panels all across his roof, and used it to charge his home. All of his kitchen machines; his stove, microwave, oven, were all powered by the solar energy. He also planted 35 trees around his house, and different flowers and bushes as well. Another segment of the documentary talked about how this program called Lead (which is a well know green architecture program) was using leftover wood from lumber companies that they were throwing away and transforming the leftover wood into a huge wooden rollercoaster in France. They would make this lumber into all sorts of great machines and parks. The documentary was very interesting and provided useful information that I can use in my future studies for Green Architecture.