Projects

The Question:
How do humans fit into the Bronx ecosystem?

The Scientists:

Community members of the Bathgate/East Tremont neighborhoods of the Bronx

The Study Site:

Bathgate Community Garden

Sponsors:

Wild Bronx at the Bathgate Comunity Garden

The Bathgate community gets to know the wild side of the Bronx as they explore their neighborhood ecosystem through a series of art, STEM, and film projects! Students and families get down and dirty to learn about plants, animals, climate, and nutrient streams in a series of gardening events, visioning sessions, art projects, and ecology research projects. Join us in the fun during our first event on Monday, January 19th at 12pm in the Bathgate Community Garden!

The Question:
How is urban infrastructure affecting the health of our neighborhood's aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems?

The Scientists:

Students, families, and senior citizens in the Two Bridges Neighborhood of Manhattan's Lower East Side

The Study Site:

Pier 42, South Street, Montgomery, Rutgers, Pike, and Catherine Slips, East Broadway and NYCHA green spaces

Sponsors:

Grokking Waterfront Ecology on the Lower East Side

As part of an Environmental Justice Grant awarded to Two Bridges Neighborhood Council by the Department of Environmental Conservation, residents of the Lower East Side are teaming up to evaluate the environmental health of their neighborhood! After-school groups, summer camps, and volunteer citizen scientists are collecting data about the air, land, and water of their neighborhood. Senior citizens are tracking pollutants while teens explore urban heat islands; campers are testing the water quality of the East River while families count and track urban wildlife on the weekends as part of Paths to Pier 42 programming.

Want to join in the fun? Sign up to participate in one of our citizen-science data collection parties! You will get more information on how to take part in community outreach events like the "data jam sessions". Want to know what else is going on out at the Pier? Check out the schedule of events and come by to learn more about the East River!

Want to see what other groups are doing to address climate change in NYC? Check out the interactive Climate and Urban Systems Partnership (CUSP) map!

The Question:
Will the building of a rain garden change the microclimate of our backyard?

The Scientists:

Elementary school students of 2 Bridges Kids! after school program

The Study Site:

Two Bridges Tower Playground

Sponsors:

Grokking Microclimate Changes at Two Bridges Tower

Students enrolled in the 2 Bridges Kids! afterschool program are tracking changes in the microclimate of their backyard, which is slated to be revamped as a rain garden in 2014. Currently, the backyard playground is subject to intense noise and air pollution from the elevated FDR highway, which looms above the site. Trees planted at the site have died from water and soil pollutants, and as a result, the unshaded playground is often too hot to touch during the summer and fall months. Will adding native plant species, shade trees, and a permeable surface make the play area cooler? Less smelly? Easier to breathe in?

We Grok It! has been working with student-scientists to develop a longitudinal study that tracks air quality, surface and air temperatures, and wind speed in the backyard of Two Bridges Tower. Currently students are collecting baseline data to characterize the microclimate as it has existed over the last 13 years. Data collection will continue throughout 2014 during construction and after completion of the new rain garden, so students can determine if and how the microclimate changes.

Want to see what they've found so far? Check out their live-data uploads here

The Question:
What living things do we see outside the Brooklyn Children's Museum?

The Scientists:

Children ages 4 - 10 participating in Celebrate Earth Week 2014

The Study Site:

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Sponsors:

The Nature Alphabet Book

In celebration of Earth Day 2014, families visiting the Brooklyn Children's Museum went on a scavenger hunt to find living things for each letter of the alphabet. The budding biologists documented what they saw, then wrote about it (sometimes with the help of a parental field assistant). The result of their hard work can be found below as downloadable pdfs.



Click here to download Volume 1
Click here to download Volume 2
Click here to download Volume 3

The Question:
How many species live in Pier 42 park?

The Scientists:

Residents on the Lower East Side, partnering with entomologists, botanists, ecologists, and ornithologists

The Study Site:

Pier 42 Park, located at the south end of East River Park

Sponsors:

Bioblitz: A biodiversity census along the East River

On May 4th & 5th, Bioblitz on Pier 42 brought together scientists and enthusiasts from the New York Entomological Society, the Greenbelt Native Plant Center, the Department of Environmental Conservation, as well as students and community members to comb the half-acre park, inventorying as many plant, animal, and fungal species as possible. "Bioblitzers" of all ages worked side by side with scientists in inventory teams to identify and catalog what can be discovered around the park.

Check here to see the final biodiversity counts and abundances from the day!