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 3/23/09

Charity Water Jonah MIlo Thomas rene Nile

 

 

The first thing noticed when I came in the room was that they had really interesting pictures on the wall.  My favorite one had young African boy carrying jericho bottle on his head.  I was drawn to it because it showed me how hard a young boys in Africa is.  Soon we sat down and we talked with a girl named Georgia about the project.  It seemed that she was pretty interested in our project.  She gave us information about Charity Water.  One of the things that I found interesting about  Charity water is that they sell a bottle of water for 20 dollars.  The 20 dollars supply a person in Africa with fresh water for six years.  I thought that was great.  Also they were building wells in tons of locations in Africa.  I thought this place was doing some awesome stuff so I really want to have further visits with Charity Water.  At the end of the visit they gave us charity water bracelets and a huge keg to show us how the Africans carried their water.  We hope this keg might inspire some kids at the day of learning to help out with this water situation.

Today I chatted with Lisa Ellenbogen, who is the VP of Marketing for the Sundance Channel.  She suggested a few TV shows that are based entirely on sustainable architecture that I should watch and possibly add clips of into out teach-in presentation.  She even offered to send a few episodes of one of the shows that’s season hasn’t started yet!  We talked about how the Sundance Channel broadcasts the ideas and pros of sustainability throughout the nation.  Every Tuesday at 9:00 PM, Sundance broadcasts their ‘Green TV’, which consists of shows only related to sustainability.

This past Thursday, Sadie, Surayya and I went to our first shopping day and our final visit to MFTA.  When we arrived we set up the survey and showed it to Johnese. ” Instead, Sidney opted for the new drug, Avodart, that is supposed to shrink the prostate. Avodart Avodart has a number of formulations. Buy Avodart Your source of breaking information about Dutasteride also known as Avodart, Avolve, GI198745, GG745 or DWhat is the most important information I should know about Avodart (Dutasteride) What warnings do you have for Avodart (Dutasteride)home > dutasteride-oral, avodart index Featured: dutasteride-oral, Avodart Main Article; dutasteride-oral, Avodart GlossaryInformation on Avodart side effects, warnings and interactions. Avodart is used to treat prostate enlargement, a condition that is medically known as benign the enlarged prostate, Avodart may alleviate theAvodart side effects and benefit for hair loss and BPH prostate enlargement studies comparing Avodart to saw palmetto Avodart for Prostate enlargementDutasteride Brand names: Avodart® Chemical formula: Drug Forms: Dutasteride capsules (below) Dutasteride Oral capsule Español: Cápsulas deAVODART (dutasteride) is a synthetic 4-azasteroid compound that is America’s vitamin superstore. 13; 100% Legal & Safe Cipro Meds. Buy Cipro Ciprofloxacin (INN) is a synthetic chemotherapeutic agent used to treat severe and life threatening bacterial infections. Find a better price and we’ll beat it. a selective inhibitor of with AVODART and periodically thereafter.   She then brought us around to different organizations that would be interesting to interview.  Some of the organizations were, The Queens Botanical Garden, Safe horizon, The Horizon theater, and the Jamaica Center.  Most people had very interesting answers to our questi Sleep Well Naturally and Wake Up Fresh. Take a deep breath. Buy Desyrel Get The Facts About DesyreI Side Effects. ; portfolio & art newsthe-artists. ons.  We were done at about 3:30 and got back to school at Diets, Foods, Symptoms & New TreaAccredited Canadian Pharmacy with savings up to 80% on mNow it’s down to 120/75 – Find out how I did it without drugsHere’s a safe, natural wa LexaproAccurate, FDA approved LexaproLexaproEscitalopram (trade names Lexapro, Cipralex) is the pure (S) enantiomer of citalopram and is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). Can I take Lexapro with other medicines. Buy Lexapro Find a lower price on Lexapro and we’ll beat it. Lexapro® (escitalopram oxalate) is a prescription antidepressant medication usedNaturally replenish neurotransmitters that affect sadness, anger, behavior, focus, sleep and more. y to lower high blood pressure – Yes, it worksBest Value on Generic Diovan. A Website Dedicated To high blood sugar diet. Buy Diovan if Diovan is right for you. Free shipping for all orders. 4:00.

On April 15th Sadie, Surayya and I had our 6th and final working day at Materials for the arts.  Johnese wasn’t there that day so we began working with Chelsea.  There were many boxes stacked high on a shelf.  Chelsea would bring them down and we put them on a cart.  Until the cart couldn’t hold any more, we brought it over to the craft section.  Most of the things in the boxes where hats and ties.  There were some things I wouldn’t have expected to find. 

When everything was put on the correct shelf Chelsea gave us some time to look for materials we could use for our teach in.  We spent about 20 minutes collecting ribbon, buttons, fabric, and things that would useful for our activity.  After we were done we reviewed our survey questions with Chelsea.  She gave us some feedback and helped us edit our questions.  Before I knew the time was up.

Last week Sadie, Surayya and I made a call to a store called Preloved in Canada.  We interviewed the manager and he told us afew things about the store.  All the clothing there is made from different pieces of old vintage clothing.  The founder of the company, Julia Green, was a model and she couldn’t afford expensive clothing so she started making her own.  The reason he likes Preloved so much is because every single item of clothing is different and unique, and you caxn always find what you want.  He said that they get the clothing to make the sweaters at a place called a “raghouse”.  They get huge bundles of vintage clothing weighing 500-1,000 pounds.

On April 8th Sadie, Surayya, and I had our 5th visit to Materials for the arts.  When we got there went got straight to work.  Our task was to organize the book shelves.  Since the organizations that come in are mostly arts organizations all the books at Materials for the arts are art books.  The donors donate mostly art books but there are some non-art books too.  We had to go through the shelves and take out all the non-art books.  The non-art books that we took out made room on the shelves for new art books they were just given.  We found many interesting books.

Next week we will be going on Wednesday for a working day, and Thurday for a shopping day.  For the shoppping day our job has been to create a survey to ask the recipients.  While organizing the books we talked to Johnese about all the different questions we had thought of.  Some examples were, What is your most needed item from MFTA?, What is your favorite thing about MFTA and what is something you would change?, If you don’t find what your looking for at MFTA where do you find it?

Yesterday we visited bluestreak for the final time.  It was fun but I don’t think that we will be going back anytime soon.  I say this because we only really learned on the first day and every other day seemed pointless.  On another note we figured out a lot of stuff on our project.  We are going to be called the Wind Wizards and we will show people the importance of wind energy.  We will do this by having a little contest of who can build the best wind turbine blade.  This will hopefully get the children interested in this topic.  We will then teach the kids a little about the importance of wind energy and how they too can get their energy in a green way.  Our main goal is to educate the children and their parents about the importance of green energy and what they can do to help.

I had 5 visits. 4 to Blue-Streak(Chelsea Piers) and one to The Museum of Arts and Design. My group and I picked doing the importance of wind energy.  Are group(Wind Wizards)  you will learn the importance of wind generated energy and alternative energy sources.  We will be building wind turbines in groups. With the help of Steve Volkmann. We have came up with this fun activities so the kids won’t just be bored out of there minds with us blabbering about wind energy, they will actually have fun competing against each other making wind turbines. We will talk about why this relates to sustainability.We will talk about where we went (bluestreak) which is located at Chelsea Piers and how we discovered how it was powered on wind energy. And obviously the importance of that. We are very ready for our teach in.Jeff Banastey

Butter Lane specializes in Cupcakes and also sell Coffee and tea.  The prices of most of the cupcakes go from $2.50-$2.75.  They focus on ingredients that are pure like real vanilla bean, pure cocoa, and dark chocolate.  Most of the products are dairy and the store is strictly organic.  All products that are shipped to Butter Lane are from local dairy farms in New York.  There is no artificial coloring or flavoring at all.  Everything is natural, real and they use no shorting at all.  They use warm lighting for their light bulbs but there store is mostly room temperature.  The  products like average by are scrumptious.  Their treats are not processed but are homemade.  The store is very friendly.  Its pretty small also.  Who I talked to was Lorie who is one of the cashiers.  Her favorite cupcake in the store was Banana cupcake.  When I went, I liked the lemon cupcake.  She told me that they’ll deliver any where under 110th street in Manhattan (not any of of the other boroughs).

Hours of Operation:

Monday-Thursday 11am -11mpFriday-Saturday 11am-Midnight

Sunday Noon-10pm

123 east Seventh Street, New York, New York
10009

Friday morning I went to Bronx Community College, to visit their Center for Sustainable Energy.  Unfortunately, the man that was going to be giving me the tour was unable to be there, so instead I managed to get a hold of dean David Taylor.  He is the chairman of the committee for sustainability at the college (from what I remember).  David Taylor and I talked for a while, and eventually I gave him the idea of BCC having it’s very own teach in!  He said that it would be a great idea and to get in contact with him on monday.  He might even come to the school to talk for a bit!

Jonah and I got a tour of the Whole Foods store downtown on Murray St.  She gave us a an intro on how Whole Foods is green, and the products that promote sustainability in Whole Foods.         For example a lot of their fruit is from local places such as places in Upstate New York or even more local.  The sustainable advantage in that situation is your aren’t wasting money and importing produce from places further away and you help the environment because you eliminate the actual process of importing produce. They also were saying that their beer is not name brand but also locally brewed beer, which also eliminates the process of transport.  She also showed us some of their kitchenware such as bowls and plates were made out of recycled materials and also a lot of them were made out of bamboo.  Unfortunately we could not see behind the scenes in the back because of insurance polocies but otherwise she well educated our knowledge in Whole Foods and their vast variety of green porducts.

Today was my 5th and hopefully not my last trip to the Grand Central Food Station. Today, I brought my dad so that he and I could go on the night shift around the city. First we, well I handed out food, while my dad just talked with some of the workers. There were a lot of pastries left over so I took a lot of them home, but I have no idea where they are now. After that was done, we got assigned to the Bronx van, so that meant that we would be giving out food in the Bronx. The people in our van were our driver, another volunteer, my dad, and I.

Getting up to the Bronx there was a lot of traffic, but we made it with plenty of time to spare. We went to our first stop and everything went according to plan. We stopped, there were some people waiting there, there handed out the food, and we were on our way. Same with the second stop, but on the way to the third stop, disaster struck. As we were driving along, a black sedan comes out of nowhere and cuts diagonally across the road, does a U-turn, crashes into another car, and explodes. We parked our car about one hundred feet away from the crashed car, and when we get out, what do we see? We see the engine from the sedan. It flew about one hundred feet away from the car and landed in a side street.

As we walked towards the car, there were car parts strewn everywhere. There were hubcaps a wheel or two and small bits of twisted metal. As my dad, one of the volunteers, and I tried to move the piece out from the street, we kept on slipping because the ground was strewn with oil. Our driver had gone to assist with the other car, the car that had been hit by the sedan.

As we approached the sedan we saw that the front had been completely totaled. I mean the hood and where the engine should be was just a hideous pile of twisted metal. I as stood there waiting; I was wondering where the EMS guys and the police were. Even without the Emergency Crew there, there were a lot of people working with the red car trying to get the doors open and doing other stuff to help. About two minutes later I hear the first sirens. And about five minutes later, the whole block was filled with flashing lights. When the ambulances would arrive, people would flag them over to the red car to help. I must have counted at least thirty or thirty-five EMS, police cars/vans, and fire trucks.

As the emergency personal did their job, some people would run up to the sedan and peer inside. After one woman looked in, I asked her what she saw, and she said, “There’s a lot of blood.”

Soon the firemen started to work on the sedan. They tried to get the car open by themselves, but that would not work. One guy shattered one of the windows so he could open the door from the inside, but that also did not work, so they used their last result; The Jaws of Life.

The Jaws of Life are basically a type of scissors and a hydraulic jack that can either cut metal or push metal apart. When it is being used, the Jaws of Life sound like a jackhammer.

The firemen finally get the car open and take a look inside. Some other and I looked on to see what would happen. The fireman looked into the car, paused in there for about a minute, came back out, reached into his bag, and pulled out a big white sheet. That is when I new that whoever was in that sedan was dead.

After another five or ten minutes, the police told us to move back beyond the road. My dad and I went back to the van, and waited for the other volunteer, and the driver to come back. When they did come back, the driver got into the car, but then he got out and went to the side and just put his head on the side. The other volunteer went out to comfort him, because it was obvious that he was crying.

When he came back, he said the he was too shaken up to drive, so my father drove for the next three stops. After the third stop, the driver took over and we drove back to the Grand Central Food Station.I have to say that that night was one of the most memorable nights of my life. I will always have three images stuck in my head. The first one is people waving the ambulance over to the red mini-van. The second one is the fireman using the Jaws of Life to open the door. The third and last one is the fireman bringing out the white sheet, and placing it on the dead man.

Today I was again planning to go on the night shift with my mom, but it turned out that the night shift was all full, I am going to go next friday on the 27.  So I went to the pantry, and handed out food like I always do.  It turned out that I am allowed to save food from the place and eat it later, so I saved 2 slices of cold pizza and ate them later.  Cold Pizza is actually really good.When I got home after work, I looked at my email, and it turned out that they had some last minute cancelations, so they did have room for my mom and I to go on the night shift.  Oh well.  My dad and I will go on the night shift next time.

This was our first shopping day at MFTA and also our last day at MFTA.  We left the school at 1:oo .pm so that we could get there at 1:30 pm. on time.  on the way up to the subway we were so nerves to ask people questions, and make sure that they liked us and that we were not being a pain or boring them.

Once we got there we walked in the door and saw a long line of people waiting to get in, and Johnese behind the counter checking them in, she told us to go to the office put our stuff away put on a volunteer badge on, and get our survey ready. Once we finished that we went back to her and showed her our survey she was very impressed and wanted to come along with us to see what the answers were, and help us fined people that wouldn’t mind being interviewed.  I was so happy that she was comeing along with us, so that I wouldn’t make a mistake.  Surayya was the first person to ask the questions (we had a system where one person would right down what they said and would ask they questions but if they couldn’t handle both they the others would help say the questions, while they were writing, and we would rotate) and did a really good job. Then it was my turn next i was really nervous, i made a couple mistakes but it was fine, and then it was maddie’s turn and she did a really good job too.  We talked to alot of people, it was a lot of fun and we got the hang of it very fast (we learned to quick, so they wouldn’t get mad). We met sooooo many different people: Artists, theater companies, school teachers, people who represent many different organizations, queens botanical garden education center and more… some people were really friendly and pacient, others were less but no matter what I had a great time and I learned alot!  At about 3:15 we stoped and talked to Johnese about our results and what we learned, she asked us to send her the information, so that they would use in to help improve. then we said our “Goodbyes” for the last time, and left.

I think working with MFTA was a really amazing expirience, i will definately never forget it.  i learned so much about how to be creative with things i would never expect to use.  I met amazing people, that were so smart, artistic and creative. i think that the people i met and the thing i learned are things that will be really important to know in the future, and that i was lucky to have to opportunity to expirience.  I think that my group is really prepared for the teach-in. i cannot wait!!!!

Love,

Sadie  

   

This week we went to MFTA twice, on wednesday we went and, Jonhese was not there so we worked with Ahmed and Chelsea.  Today we moed plastic bins from a top shelf to a flatbed (cart with wheels). and then rolled them to the row they needed to be, in the boxes was mostly clothes and items like that: hats, ties, dresses, and small pieces of cloth.  We ended early so that we could go over our survey with Chelsea, and see what she thought, we ended up with these:

questions:

1. What organization are you from?

2. What is your most needed item from MFTA?

3. What is something that you love about MFTA?

4. Have you seen something that has inspired you?

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

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

7. Were you surprised with something you saw?

She really liked them but advised that we put the more negative questions a the end of the survey so that everything is not started off negative.

thanks, sadie

This is just a quick entry to say that Maddie, Surayya and I had a call with the manager at a store called preloved in Canada.  the store preloved is a clothing stored all made from old vintage clothing. he told us that they get all of their clothes from a “rag house”which a place full of bundles of vintage clothing, he said that they get t-shirts in bundles of 1,ooo pounds, or sweaters in 500 pounds.  The woman who started the company was a model, Julia Green she always went to model calls and had to dress in expencive clothes that she couldnt afford so she made her own clothes from old clothes.  the Manager said that the reason he like the store so much is becuase there are somany different styles and you always find what you want.

thanks, sadie

On friday Lily and I are going to the museum of arts for our last visit. We are looking forward to it and we are very excited to learn more about green architecture.

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

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?

Amyrah and I went to Ollies place.  THere was one other volunteer for the first hour and another came later.  We used horse hair comes to remove the fur the cats had shed off the blankets and mats inside that cats crates.  My favorite is Willow who is an oarange cat with a stripey tale.  About half an hour in Solomon attacked Lena and they got into a big fight.  Lena came out with a bleeding ear.  Aggy Pancakes got herself stuck behind the cages and she scratched me while i was taking her out.

Today I went to ollies place at 2:00.  Most of the cats weren’t there because they had a big adoption thing.  The friendliest and least nervous cats went in a van to 23rd and 2nd to try and find new homes.  So there wasn’t as much work today.  Lena managed to fall off the same pillow today as last time but this time she caught herself successfully.  Its amazing how much more active some of the cats are when there are fewer around.  Brook never stopped moving when she is usually just lying around.  Bruno actually managed to poke his head out of his cage.  Daschel will be going home sometime this week.  At about 2:30 an elderly English lady came in.  She fell immediately in love with Cupcake.   

I went to Ollies place at 1:15.  THere were a lot of people there.  Two it was their first time volunteering.  When I got there almost everyone was in their cage except the shier cats so they could get some excercize.  Slowly everyone got out except Aggy Pancakes and Mittins because Aggy has a tape worm and since she shares a cage with Mittins they are afraid he got it to.  Lucky desided that i was his new best friend and wouldn’t leave me alone the whole time. We cleaned out the cages and by 4:00 almost everyone was gone except me and three other volunteers.  One who is kind of the head left for about 15 minutes and than the others left.  I had 27 cats to myself for about ten minutes.  When the lady got back we finished the cleanup.  Some visitors came and she went downstairs.  CoCo and a Frolly had a face off so i had to separate them.  THan Lucky and one of the new kitties Thecla got into a fight so i picked up Lucky and was looking for his cage when he got a hair ball.

Today, Adam and I returned to the Center for Architecture.  Instead of interning as we did last time, we walked around the museum they have.  1/4 of it was directly related to energy efficient architecture.  There was a small exhibit on a building in Sacramento, California that runs entirely on solar power.  It is mainly built of glass though, which causes it to loose hot air.

On Thursday, Harry and I went to Whole Foods in Tribeca. A woman named Mary who is one of the head of the staff showed us around Whole Foods describing each section such as, the Meat, the Seafood, the Fruit and Vegetables, liquids, etc. We learned that Whole Foods has always tried to support smaller businesses. They buy mostly organic products, and they buy from the best of the best. All the food, and clothing they buy is sustainable for a healthy living style. They only purchase organic %100 cotton clothing wear. They buy recyclable cup, and dish ware. They think about the extinction of sea and animal life. None of the fruit and vegetables they buy are grown with chemicals. There is a ton more that we learned, but now I know when I shop at Whole Foods, I am supporting a market which takes care in each department and thinks about everyone who buys from them so they live a healthy life.

It is a fantastic idea to use video chatting as a tool when trying to collaborate with others.  It allows for easy communication, and you can see physical reactions to certain topics.  Our group was going to have a conference call with Hotchkiss (a boarding school in Connecticut), and a school in Australia.  Sadly, Australia is on break from school, but we still managed to connect with the students from Hotchkiss.  We shared our ideas pertaining to the water crisis, and they gave us many good ideas.  At their school, the teenagers we video-chatted with are educating others about clean water, and the overuse of plastic water bottles.  They are introducing the idea of bringing dedicated water bottles, and using them exclusively for drinking.  The students are also attempting to decrease consumption of water, and are promoting short showers to conserve water.  After educating Hotchkiss, the students are going to spread their message and cause to the nearby communities.
The students we videochatted with are doing this water project on their own time.  They are firmly dedicated to their ideals, and believe water is an important subject, and their ideas should be widespread.  The club gave us the idea of going to a super market, and asking them to decrease their water use, and limit the sale of bottled water.  We are also going to promote the idea of a dedicated water bottle that can be refilled with tap water.  We told the water club of the mission of Charity Water, and gave them the website URL.  Hopefully they will initiate charity water, and can join the list of schools Charity Water has signed up for their cause.  We told the Hotchkiss students of the movie “Flow”, and told them we would be contacting Irena Salina.  We told them about the movie, and they seemed interested in it.  I think sharing our ideas with each other helps establish a connection between our schools, and will directly help and contribute to our project we are working on.  They seem to be a dedicated group of kids, and both our efforts can make a difference.

         Yesterday, we also went to the Audubon Society.  It was near Volunteers for Wildlife.  The Audubon Society started out as a nature preserve, but then turned into a nature center, to educate people about wildlife.  We interviewed a guy named Aaron, who works there.  When interviewing Aaron, he told us many things:·  Unlike some other interviewees, Aaron believes that the conditions are better for the owls now because there is more prey for the owls, that wasn’t there in the 1960’s and 1970’s.·  Once again, Aaron believes the best way for the public to help is to get educated.  This will take away any fear of the owls, therefore taking away any hate or people getting defensive toward the owls. ·  Like Birding Bob, Aaron believes that a “successful” release is when the owls are breeding on their own, not having to be re-introduced every so often, there are no *nest boxes, and there is a good rodent population.  He believes that when you can make a natural “replica ecosystem” for the owls, it is successful.*Nest boxes are used so the owls don’t have to find trees, find food, or make nests on their own.  It is sort of like being captivated.  Aaron said that sometimes the owl releasers were using nest boxes in the beginning of the project, but not telling anyone because that wouldn’t be “successful.”·  He agrees that it was a good idea for Len Soucy, who works at    The Raptor Trust and released the first batch of owls, not to release a second batch of owls, because of pesticides in Central Park. ·  I was wondering if there were any reintroducing of rodents to Central Park, to go hand-in-hand with the owl project, so the owls would have more food.  Aaron said there wasn’t.·  Aaron says that the bird-calling machines aren’t connected to any studies saying that it could actually harm the birds.  At first, I thought he totally agreed with playing the tapes, which surprised me.  Then he said that The Audubon Society’s owl walks only use the recordings once every two weeks, and in different places.  Plus, they don’t do owl walks in that specific nature preserve because it’s only 15 acres and it would be distracting to play a recording.  However, he does believe that using a bird-calling machine helps people connect with the birds, and it gets people interested (this is what Andy said too).·  Sometimes birds are tracked by leaving flour out on the ground.  This way, you can see the wing beats and footprints in the flour, to see if any birds have been by.·  I concluded that the disappearance of the owls related to the food chain is like the chicken or the egg.  Did the prey decline because the owls eat them?  And if the rodents/birds did decline, that would cause the owls to decline.  So, which came first?  I can relate this to our world.  We overuse our resources so then we don’t have any left.  I am not saying this is what happens with the owls, but that it’s something to think about.  Is there such a low rodent population that the owls “use” them all up? ·  Aaron said that screech owls live about 10 years in the wild and 20 years in captivity.  It’s interesting to compare that with what Jason said.·  Owl feathers are hollow at the end, to make a silent flight for the owls when hunting.  This is unlike any other bird feather.·  Screech owls have feathers that are good for camouflaging.  For example, a red-faced screech owl’s ear tufts could be broken branches.  Also, they are good at blending in with red cedar trees. ·  Red faced screech owls (like in the photos below) are more common than grey owls.·  Owls have feathered feet.·  If an owl’s ears are back, they are angry.Also, during the interview, a lady named Alice came out with a red-faced screech owl.  He was so cute!  As you can see below, he is blind in one eye.  They think he got hit by a car.  I loved today’s two visits because we got to see the little creatures we are saving up close!The entrance. As you can see, this red-faced screech owl is sadly blind in one eye.  It is thought that he was hit by a car.Another picture of the screech owl. Theodore Roosevelt’s grave site.  He is important to our project because he helped in saving wildlife during his presidency.  Also, he chose to be buried here! 

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

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 3/23/09

Charity Water Jonah MIlo Thomas rene Nile

 

 

The first thing noticed when I came in the room was that they had really interesting pictures on the wall.  My favorite one had young African boy carrying jericho bottle on his head.  I was drawn to it because it showed me how hard a young boys in Africa is.  Soon we sat down and we talked with a girl named Georgia about the project.  It seemed that she was pretty interested in our project.  She gave us information about Charity Water.  One of the things that I found interesting about  Charity water is that they sell a bottle of water for 20 dollars.  The 20 dollars supply a person in Africa with fresh water for six years.  I thought that was great.  Also they were building wells in tons of locations in Africa.  I thought this place was doing some awesome stuff so I really want to have further visits with Charity Water.  At the end of the visit they gave us charity water bracelets and a huge keg to show us how the Africans carried their water.  We hope this keg might inspire some kids at the day of learning to help out with this water situation.

Malcolm 3/12/09

Tap’d NYC Rene Thomas NIle

 

I really enjoyed visiting Tap’d.  I learned a lot about tap’d that I didn’t know.  Before the meeting I was not sure what the goal was.  When I heard they were against bottle water but they were selling their own bottle water I thought it was a bit weird.  They cleared it up telling me that the their bottle water was actually tap water.  I was forced to move into this water group because I didn’t have scheduled meeting for my local foods idea.  This group turns out great for me because importing the water is from local places.  I’m really happy I’m in it.  Also at the meeting we outlined what we were going to do for the next meetings.  We’ve planned to visit the water factory in New Jersey and advertise tap’d so more stores sell it.  I’m really excited to do further work.

Continue reading →

Continue reading →

Today we visited to Volunteers for Wildlife (as well as the Audubon Society—see next post).  It is an organization that is like The Raptor Trust, except it rehabilitates more than just raptors.  We interviewed a guy who works there, named Jason.  Also one of the owls is there that was involved in the screech owl releasing into Central Park.  This owl was released with the others, and then found in the park somewhere, not looking too healthy.  He was taken somewhere in the park to be rehabilitated there.  After being released a second time, he was found again, looking thin and without much food.  Since they figured the owl couldn’t survive on his own, Volunteers for Wildlife took him in permanently, to live in captivity.  Jason told us that an owl’s life span is about twice as long in captivity than in the wild, because being captive is having the “ideal” lifestyle.  Also, an owl’s diet is more varied in the wild. In the wild, screech owls live to about thirteen years old.According to Jason, six owls were first released in Central Park in 1998, and none were to be found.  This indicated that these owls were struggling too.  However, he believes that Central Park is a good habitat for owls and other wildlife to live.  These are the other things we learned:

• Jason believes that the reasons for the initial disappearance of the screech owls in Central Park are habitat loss (said many times), development, and pesticides in the prey.  He explained that there used to be screech owls all around the city, but then it started getting developed, and the owls were confined to one area—Central Park (and they still are). 
• Around every Christmas, there is a “Christmas Bird Count.”  The amount of birds, including owls, is counted in different parts of the country, Central Park being one of the places.  This is to keep track of the population.  Shulian brought up a potential concern—counting the same bird twice.  Jason said that people look in separate directions, and real birders would know the difference between two individual birds.  Even if one bird were counted twice, it wouldn’t be a big deal.
• Screech owls weigh about 180 grams.  Females weigh more than males because they have to carry the eggs.  They are also 2/3 bigger in size.
• Owls can change the size they appear to be, according to their emotions.  They puff out when they feel threatened and get thin when they are hiding.
• “Banding” is to keep track of individual birds.  This is when metal bands are put on their feet.  There is no radio transmission, so you have to look at the band manually, to see the location of the bird. Each band-size has its own number, according to the size of the bird’s foot (screech owls are given #5 bands). 
• Jason believes that the bird-calling machines aren’t terrible, but should be used in moderation.  He said the machines could increase owls’ stress and interrupt hunting.  However, he doesn’t think it’s a significant reason of the owls disappearing the park.  It’s hard to keep track of who plays the recording in Central Park, and how often. 

Also, there was an interesting article that Shulian sent me that was totally contradicting Bob DeCandido about his bird-calling machines.  It says how he does it too much, and it’s very inconsiderate.  Between others’ opinions and this article, I have to disagree with how often Bob uses the recordings.  He should use it in moderation.

• Jason brought up how bird feeders are another interference with wildlife.  Birds eat from them, causing them not to migrate as quickly.  When anything in the natural world is thrown off like that, it’s bound to cause problems having to do with the food chain (other species) and the living conditions of the bird itself.  Jason suggested for people to not put out birdfeeders, but natural food sources, like trees with fruit on them.  That way, like the birds, the fruit will naturally disappear in the winter. 

However, Jason didn’t think this interference would be enough to make the owls disappear either. 

• Educating the public is a really popular answer to the question, “How can the public help maintain the screech owls in Central Park?”  Also, Jason said people could actively keep educating themselves by doing research about screech owls, and the project in Central Park.  He said people could petition against pesticides being used along the borders of the park.

After interviewing Jason, a lady named Lauren brought out the screech owl that was part of the project.  He was so cute! She had him on her arm for a long time while we were talking with her.  All our interviewees are right—seeing the owls, and how adorable they are really motivates you to keep helping, or in some people’s case, to start helping.     Then, Jason took us out to all the rehabilitation cages, with different raptors.  It reminded me of The Raptor Trust.  It was such a beautiful day out, and I loved seeing the birds!  This visit was both fun and productive.   The screech owl in his traveling tree stump. Screech owl!!!The metal band used for tracking screech owls. The cages of the raptors. 

This wednesday we (maddie, surayya, and I) went to Materials for the Arts again and this time we were sent to a about five or six huge book cases. we were a little late today so we got straigh to work.  our assignment was to claim a bookcase and then go through all of the books and make sure they have something to do with art.  once we finish we would try to squeezing in more book that had not see a shelf yet.  We came across many differnt books.

 We talked with Johnese about the survey that we were to produce by next thursday (the shopping day) and waht questions would be on it: what organization do you came from?, what do you wish MFTA had?, where do you go if you dont find waht you want here?, is it difficult to find what you want?,  what does your organization really need?, what is your favorite thing about MFTA?, what is your least favorite?….etc.

Next week we will be going on wednesday as usual and on a thursday for our first shopping day. where we will be helpers and we will do our survey..which we were thinking would be good to make some multiple choise, to make it easier for the shoppers.

thanks

sadie

This weekend, Jacey and I passed by Organic Avenue so we briefly went inside and looked around. Organic Avenue is a really interesting small little shop located on 8th avenue. Organic Avenue sells only organic and healthy products. They sell all sorts of foods, they have drinks, sandwiches, snacks, and some other body products. Organic Avenue really encourages people to reuse and recycle. They have their own sustainable system where people can return the containers that they buy their food in. For example, the drinks are sold in glass containers for 5 dollars, but when you return it you get 2 dollars back. The woman said that a lot of people seem to do this, and it works very well. This way they can just clean and reuse their containers. This thursday at 3:30, Jonah, Jacey, Harry and I have our visit and tour at Whole Foods.  

On Wednesday I went to Charity Water for volunteer day.  It was fun because I got to work with other young adults painting Jerry Cans. The interesting part about painting the cans was the fact that we were using Coffee. We were using coffee to paint the Jerry Cans to make them look dirty and beat up like the original ones in Africa. We were painting them to promote what the Jerry Cans look like in Africa. Charity Water will keep them in the office for visitors. All though this was interesting I was expecting to do something else. I was expecting to learn and go hands on with helping others directly. I guess we were doing this to raise awareness. I had a good time, but I look forward to something more intriguing.

On April 1st Sadie, Surayya and I went to Materials for the Arts for our 4th visit and our third working day.  It took a while for the train to come but it finally came and we were off to Materials for the arts.  We put our stuff down, signed in and went right to work. Our task was to roll big sheets of poster paper in groups of forty sheets and tie it with a rubber band.  The paper at Materials for the arts is mostly given to public school teachers.  They use these for projects and reports.  We put about forty sheets in each roll because most classes are about 35 kids.  We put all the paper on a big rolling cart and worked on that.  There were three stacks of paper, which were each about 1 1/2 feet tall.  There were many different kinds of paper.  On the top of the stacks there were many sheets of light blue paper.  They were very easy to roll up and tie together.  Under that was a white glossy poster paper.  This paper was very stiff and hard to roll.  When we put a rubber band around it, it would unroll and get looser.  Johnese went to get stronger rubber bands.  Although they were hard to put around the thick paper, the outcome was much better because the paper rolls stayed small.  We went through two of the stacks and fit the rolls in two big boxes.  The reason we rolled all the paper was to make it easier for the customers to find and take the paper they want.  If they had to take it from the stacks themselves they would probably end up rolling up anyway, so we made their job easier.  The time went by very quickly and before we knew it, it was time to go.

Harry, Jonah and I on Thursday visited the Museum of Arts and Design. It’s in Columbus Circle. It is more modern type and it had really interesting art. We found it really interesting that the Museum used modern day sustainable everyday objects. The Museum show a focus on postwar contemporary art. Currently on view of their ” Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art,” featuring many artists who balance environmental concerns. The Museum was very interesting. And showed an importance.Jeff Banastey

On Thursday, Nile, Milo, Harry, Thomas, Anne, Renee and I had a discussion with another school. We discussed what we’ve been doing for our sustainability Project and about different Organizations such as, Charity Water. We also discussed what our grade we’ll be doing a presentation for the school. Some of what we learned was that the other school, they will be using less material such as, cups, and silverware. The school will be using less energy. Next time we will be talking with an Australian school. I enjoyed learning other schools ideas and sharing ours. I don’t mind talking to other schools.

On Thursday, Jeff, Harry, and I went to the Museum of Art and Design. The M.O.A.D is on the upper west side. When we arrived, we paid a $12 admission fee. We visited 3 floors, and what I got out of them was the fact that the art was supposed to be modern sustainable everyday used objects and bigger objects such as, a couch or a desk. All of the pieces were recyclable. I noticed that a lot of the pieces were made with steel, metal, and aluminum. Overall, I had a great experience, which was learning new information about what others are doing to save the Earth.

On Wednesday I went to Charity Water for Volunteer Day which is, every Wednesday. When arrived at 6pm, there were about 10 other people besides me. Volunteer Day, is a day to help out the orginazation with financial stuff such as, opening emails and mail. When I arrived, I painted cans to look more authentic. I learned organic ways in which I can make art which was with left over coffee, which is what we used and it worked out well. I had a good time and I will probably go again.  

Today Harry of our group visited the Museum of Arts and Designs.  Neither Adam nor I were available, but Harry filled me in on what was significant about this museum.  At the museum, there were many things such as shelves or bookcases made out of recycled materials.  While these were not as exciting as the expected sculptures made of recycled material, the were proven important in the way that they were just as effective as any shelf or bookcase made from scratch.

On the same day that we interviewed Andy (see previous post) we also visited the Raptor Trust, in New Jersey.  Shulian, her mom, Andy, Andy’s son, and I went all together.  We took some pamphlets to read, and I learned some information about The Raptor Trust after reading them.The Raptor Trust is a non-profit corporation that is recognized as one of the best places to rehabilitate birds, and to keep raptors going strong.  It has three main missions: 1. Providing free help to birds who are injured, sick or orphaned, with high-quality medical care and goal of returning all rehabilitated birds to the wild.  2.  Educating people about wild birds, particularly birds of prey, by offering programs on the history of raptors, given to schools, nature organizations, and other groups that are interested. 3.  Providing a good example for others.  All birds are accepted—none are turned down from being helped.  Everything that the Raptor Trust does is licensed.  Also, we picked up a pamphlet that tells you how to help prevent injuries of wild birds.  This could be helpful to our presentation in a few weeks.  Also, relating to our project, this is the place where the first “batch” of screech owls was rehabilitated, to be released into Central Park. We visited the part of The Raptor Trust where the birds are rehabilitated.  It was outside, and there were many cages for the birds to live in.  We didn’t only see owls, but lots of other birds of prey. It sort of reminded me of seeing one of those bird shows because we saw the same kind of birds (birds of prey).  Even though we didn’t get to interview anyone, it was a great experience to see the birds up close, and where they are rehabilitated.  What the Raptor Trust does is very helpful to our environment and it’s really inspiring to see what they’re doing.          This is a screech owl in his cage. Here I am standing in front of a bald eagle’s cage.  I am making a donation. Here’s a funny sign we saw.  

This was our fourth trip to Materials for the Arts. We had a little bit of trouble at the end of school and we ended up leaving a little late (we thought we would still be O.K.). But then we missed our train and another one didn’t came for about twenty minutes. We started to get worried, but while we were waiting Surayya showed us (Maddie and I) that she brought two mannequins and a poster to try to donate to Materials for the Arts. Finally the train came but we had to transfer after a lot of stops and get on a new subway and take one more stop. We weren’t sure what we would be doing this trip but we had a feeling it might have something to do with paper or books. This is because Johnese was saying last week that they would be getting a big shipment of books and paper, and we thought we might have to organize it, or do something with it. When we got there we were surprized to find out that we were only ten minutes late (and we were really confused on how that happened). So we ran upstairs to the warehouse and went straight to Johnese and got our a signment for they day. As we thought she led us to a cart with piles of large pieces of paper on it. the Goal was to roll a good amount of paper and put a rubber band on it then put it in a box for the customers. We alternated jobs (ruberbander, roller, and box-puter-iner). we didn’t finish all of the paper but we got close and we had a really good time.

thanks

sadie

Yesterday, I got the chance to meet with Irena Salina, the director of Flow: For love of Water. I had made up a list of questions for her, not only about bottled water, which is what my groups main focus has been. I feel like in the short hour we spent talking, I learned more than I did from the internet searches, and 2 visits to two different organizations. My questions soon became worthless, and our conversation spiraled into internet searches on how the U.S. is slowly starting to be concious about not only the threat bottled water is to the body, but how its ruining our envoirnment. I realized that Irena does all of her reaserch herself, water was just something that caught her interest a few years ago. I always thought that there were hundreds of people behind documentaries, cheching facts, writing etc. But really, its just some people who are passionate about something that they are willing to spend a few extra minutes here and there, before a big opertunity like a movie came along. It made me feel like the hours i spent googling organizations, facts, just about anything that had to do with water was not a waitse. Something i found really interesting that Irena lightly touched on was the prosess of how they made the film. The unbelievable stories she told me about when she went to India, images that will stay in my head forever. I feel that the next step i need to take in this project would be starting to think about my presentation, as well as wrapping up our visits. Irena directed me to a lot of good sites, and gave me some good ideas for the Day of Learning. 

This week, with my partners Thomas, Nile, Malcolm and Jonah and Milo who joined recently; we went to Charity:Water. We worked with a woman named Georgia, who is working on a project there that obtained to our topic of water. What surprised me about this organization, is the way they run. With only 15 employees, Charity:Water works on a number of different projects thorough out the year. People there like Georgia who were interested in her topic, chose to work on that one for a whole year. Others choose other topics, but they all had to do with getting clean wells to different regions of Africa. What Georgia and her “team’s” project is, is to get 100 schools to sign up for their organizations site. After a school was signed up, you would get a shipment of product to sell. (We got to see the room where they store all the products and there was a shelf up to the ceiling!) The merchandise range from hats, water, bracelets, etc. With the money you made from selling these things, you would send it back to charity water, and they would keep it. At the end of the year, they would count how much money they have and no matter how much, they would send it to make wells in African schools. I was also surprised by the high number of their goal, 2 million dollars! Yet i think they can make it since they already have over 110 schools since september signed up. For my Teach In, I’d love to use all the visuals that Georgia gave us. She gave us photos, bracelets, and a Jerry Can. It was really sad to find out that kids half our sizes were carrying 2 maybe 3 Jerry Cans, which can weigh up to 40 pounds of water, 3 or 4 miles every day. I learned that if we work together as schools all around the country we could help other schools in countries that need basic things like water, food, and supplies. It’s not like any money is coming out of our pockets. What if every school in the country participated, we could make enough money to send to get over 100,000 wells to African Schools. I just think it’s a shame that organizations like these are unknown. This is a photo of a well being made, Georgia gave it to us along with a few other pictures that we will be using in our teach in.     

I went to do the conference with the school in Connecticut so I could see what it was all about.  First of all the idea of Chairty Water and Tap’d is really important and I thought it was really great that we had a conference with another school because we got to hear how they contribute to the situation and it also gave us ideas.  One thing they did that I thought was a great idea was they give every student one of those reusable bottles, which we could even do to eliminate waste.

Me Jonah and Jeff went and looked at the Museom of Arts and Designs.  We saw a selection of recycled materials made into every day objects.  Unfortunately I was expecting to see sculptures of different things made from recycled materials but instead it was things like shelves and drawers made from recycled material.  Actually the everyday objects made from recycled materials was more sustainable rather than making creative scultpures because making everyday objects makes it usable.