Boricua College Natural Science Survey

The Green Frontier -- in our backyard

2011-01-26T12:39:00.000-05:00

As promised,
a potpourri of info
on green businesses in
Northside Williamsburg
Brooklyn
New York City
New York
USA!

Green rooftops, a form of urban farming, are a burgeoning business, especially with Bloomburg tax incentives, $4.50 per square foot!

The law, passed last year, is part of the Real Property Tax Law, Title 4-B , (search here)

"Green Roof Tax Abatement for certain Properties in a City of One Million or More Persons"

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/pdf/08pdf/green_roof_legislation.pdf

checklist

We will be visiting the Jungle a local green roof designer.

green canteen

1062-2009

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to controlling emissions from businesses located in mixed-use buildings that use chemicals.

What is a Green Environment?

Ten Years of Change in Northside Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Anyone who lived then Northside Williamsburg in the last century knows our town of 50,000 (Census 2000) has undergone rapid change. But is our environment any better? What is an urban environment? Are we any "greener?"

To answer these questions, first consider two landmarks of the community that have dramatically changed over the past decade.

The East River New York State Park

Back in the day, accessing the East River in Northside Williamsburg meant jumping a metal link fence, sidestepping illegally dumped materials, overgrown vegetation, even a car or mobile home. But the view was great, and a diverse ecosystem reigned. It was a raw, wild time back then, when you never saw a yellow cab in the neighborhood, and there were less than a dozen bars and pubs.
Today, the East River Park is a harbinger of the shape of things to come, a "greener" time, but what is a "green" environment, economy, or community? This Saturday morning, in groups of 4-5, we will be taking a self-guided tour of the Northside Williamsburg community, seeking answers to these questions along the way.

The Finger Building

A.K.A. 144 N. 8th Street, was previously a school, a die-casting business, and prospective Sin-é site (anyone remember The Pod?), is now a "super-sized" shape that was the shot heard 'round the 'burg when construction started on it. It was designed by architect Robert Scarano, who surrendered his right to self-certify last year, and is now charged with violating building codes on 25 of his Brooklyn construction projects. In lieu of the recent crane construction dangers, on June 12, DOB and DOI filed charges against him in regards to two of his Greenpoint construction projects, stating, "We will not tolerate anyone who knowingly attempts to mislead the Department with false documents. Scarano was also charged in 2006 with failing to guarantee safe conditions at a building site on Ocean Parkway where a worker was killed in a wall collapse. The City and State are looking into revoking his license entirely. Property owner Scott Spector sued Scarano over the misuse of air rights of his buildings. Before the building frame was erected, six floors up was about as high as any Northside building could be. Today, "luxury condominiums" catch the clouds, forcing interior spaces away from the street crowd.

Having read these two descriptions, ask yourself the following questions:

How would you describe the Northside's environment? How has it changed over the years?
What examples of places, buildings, etc. would you use in your description?
How would you make the neighborhood "greener"?

Upon answering these questions, post a comment to this blog entry, (1-2 paragraphs) explaining your answers to these questions. If you finish early, go to the wiki to update your page (NYT articles, etc.). Also, don't forget about posting a comment to last class's blog posting, listing your cytogentic and base pair locations to your homework genetic disease.

Developing a Green Urban Environment

Within the past few decades, much research has been invested in examining what an Urban Ecosystem contains. Why else would the National Forest Service have a Field Station in NYC? Even cities can be natural classrooms that students can access to learn about basic ecology principles.
We will be addressing two questions in Saturday's class:

What kinds of interesting plant and animal species live in the Northside neighborhood?
What sort of "green" activities exist in our neighborhood?

We will meet at 10AM, June 21st at the Northside Community Garden on North 6th and Driggs Ave. to begin our exploration of the Northside. After identifying various taxometries in the garden, each group of 4-5 students will develop their own walking tour of the neighborhood. Each group must stop at three of the following business, and determine whether they are "green" businesses.

Additionally, each team will locate five places on their map that identify places with interesting plant/animal species. Finally, we will all meet back together at noon at the East River park on Kent Avenue and North 8th Street.

Once all of our information has been gathered, each group will design a walking tour based on their group's and any other group's experiences. The walking tour should be something like the Newtown Creek Walking Tour where interesting environmental aspects of the Northside are described.

2011-01-26T12:37:00.001-05:00

How Will Genetic Tests Determine Who We Are, and What We'll Do, Now and in the Future?

Do Now Punnett Squares

Please answer these following questions on the blank worksheets distributed last week.

Question #1:

In pea plants, yellow peas are dominant over green peas.

Use a Punnett square to predict the genetic outcome (offspring) of a cross between two plants for yellow peas that yield a small amount of green peas.

Question #2:

The long hair of persian cats is recessive to the short hair of siamese cats. Complete a Punnett Square when a a purebred persian is mated with a purebred siamese cat.

Question #3:

The black coat of persian cat is dominant to the brown and tan coat of siamese. Complete a Punnett Square when a a purebred black persian is mated with a purebred brown siamese cat.

Question #4:

In four o'clock flowers, red plants are purebred for the dominant allele (R) of the gene for flower color. Plants with white flowers are purebred for the recessive (r) allele of the same gene. Plants with pink flowers have one of each of the two alleles. Complete a Punnett square that is expected when plants with pink flowers are intercrossed.

Question #5:

In humans, brown eyes (B) are dominant over blue (b). A brown-eyed man marries a blue-eyed woman and they have three children, two of whom are brown-eyed and one of whom is blue-eyed. Draw the Punnett square that illustrates this marriage.

Suppose one of the brown-eyed children marries someone with blue eyes. Use the second Punnett square to predict their offspring.

And here are some good Punnett practice problem sites. In fact, the problems above (and likely the questions on the midterm) come from these sites.

The Association for Biology Laboratory Education has a really good .pdf handout on the step by step procedure to solving Punnett square problems. eMINTS has a good list of Punnett square sites. And here is my own list:

Lubey's BioHelp – easy questions
State of Utah, Office of Education – easy questions
Soterios Lallas' Website – at Westby, Wisconsin!
The Biology Project – Good multiple choice problems (not on our midterm, though...)
Glencoe Online – more multiple choice questions
Palomar College – yet more multiple choice questions
Middle Tennessee State University – don't worry about sex-linked crosses.
Texas A&M – Only Problems #1-5, avoid incomplete dominance and dihybrids...
Anthro, Limited – only work on monohybrid crosses
Clermont College, University of Cincinnati – again, don't worry about incomplete dominance

If you're daring, try the challenging Berkeley University problems ( the answers are here)

So practice, practice, practice... Bring any problems you have difficulty with to class, and we'll work them out together.

Genetic Diseases

You got married last year, and now you're going to be a parent in six months! You went to your obstetrician for an amniocentisis, and just got the results: the fetus has some genetic defects on Chromosome 7, making it least 50% likely that your child will have Autism. Further, Williams syndrome is likely, as defects on the CLIP2 gene have been observed. That's a lot of ATCGs...

Homework

The table below lists everybody's genetic research assignments. Please fill out the forms distributed in class during the midterm to organize your research. Go to the Genetics Home Reference website to do your research. The following steps will help guide you through the research:

Click on the Genetic Diseases box
Either look for the name alphabetically, or by the body system the disease affects
Once you have identified a specific genetic disease, click on one of the gene abbreviations (MLH1, etc.) to go to the specific gene related to the disease.
This will take you to a webpage listing specific information on that particular genetic defect. You can fill out your worksheet from this page.

For example,

cystic fibrosis CFTR 7q31.2

Hurricanes

Let's practice tracking Hurricane Hanna, using a Hurricane tracking sheet.

Urban Ecosystems

Consider the "Tree of Heaven," ("ToH"). It serves as an anchor in many urban ecosystems. I'm sure you have all seen it, walking down Brooklyn's sidewalks, seeing it sprout up from the cracks. It is categorized as part of the "Quassia" family, Sue Sweeney claims that it is as much a "part of the urban landscape as the Norway rat, the cockroach, and the feral cat. Many urban wildlife lovers agree. Extensive procedures have been developed to control its growth. Its pharmaceutical effects on incurable diseases has also been researched. Its effects on the urban landscape have also been examined in Europe.

Use the links to answer the questions on the worksheet provided in class. We will share out the results of our research in about 45 minutes.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Causeway Street

Class #5: Designer Babies

2011-01-26T12:37:00.000-05:00

How Will Genetic Tests Determine Who We Are, and What We'll Do, Now and in the Future?

Do Now

Answer the questions about the film "GATAGA"

Homework

Click on the Genetic Diseases box
Either look for the name alphabetically, or by the body system the disease affects
Once you have identified a specific genetic disease, click on one of the gene abbreviations (MLH1, etc.) to go to the specific gene related to the disease.
This will take you to a webpage listing specific information on that particular genetic defect. You can fill out your worksheet from this page.

I also want you to post a comment to this blog listing the 2-3 genes related to your specific genetic disease, its symbol, and cytogentic location. For example,

cystic fibrosis CFTR 7q31.2

Class #3: Cooling the Waters

2011-01-26T12:36:00.000-05:00

Hurricanes, Tornadoes,
and New York City

We have already seen more tornadoes this season than in any other year in the past decade, 35 on May 8th alone. 100 people have died from tornadoes this year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ("NOAA") has cataloged over 1,000 sitings of tornadoes.

We all remember the 2007 Brooklyn tornado, According to the Post, it was the first tornado hitting Brooklyn in 118 years, and the first EF-2. The Daily News called it Tornado Alley. It only touched down for less than a minute, but that was enough time to knock out public transportation.

Do these these trends have anything to do with global warming? Let's start with a recap from last class -- what is global warming?

In Class Assignment

I would like everybody to answer the question, "What is global warming?" in 2-3 sentences only, by posting an anonymous comment to this blog entry (not all the way at the bottom of this page!). To do so, please follow this procedure:

Click on the 'comments' link at the bottom of this posting.
Select the 'Anonymous' Identity
Type your name at the top of the Comments box,
Type your answer to the question (2-3 sentences only), "What is global warming?" Make sure to include the following points in your answer:

"Ancient vs. Current" sunlight
Global Warming gases
The flow of the Sun's energy through the Earth's atmosphere and crust
When finished, click on the 'Publish Comment' button.

Discovering a New World, and New Weather

“Hurakan, in lingua di questa isola vuole dire propriamente fortuna tempestuosa molto eccessiva, perche en effetto non è altro que un grandissimo vento è pioggia insieme.”

Oviedo y Valdés
"Historia General y Natural de las Indias"
lib. vi. cap. iii. 1547-9

But those that they had made, that they had created, did not think, did not speak with their Creator, their Maker. And for this reason they were killed, they were deluged. A heavy resin fell from the sky. The one called Xecotcovach came and gouged out their eyes; Camalotz came and cut off their heads; Cotzbalam came and devoured their flesh. Tucumbalam came, too, and broke and mangled their bones and their nerves, and ground and crumbled their bones.
This was to punish them because they had not thought of their mother, nor their father, the Heart of Heaven, called Huracán. And for this reason the face of the earth was darkened and a black rain began to fall, by day and by night..

Popul Vul, Chapter 3

Hurricane History

Since 1900, the United States has faced many hurricanes, beginning with the destruction of Galveston. History reveals hurricanes have threatened New York City every century, an "American Experience" episode was dedicated to the event. Winds reached 70 mph when the hurricane hit the Long Island coast. New York City's Office of Emergency Management Hurricane page also lists hurricanes dating from 1821, the year every street south of Canal Street was flooded.The New York metropolitan transportation system is particularly vulnerable to disruption by major storms even at present, since most area rail and tunnel points of entry as well as the three major airports lie at elevations of 10 feet or less.

Using the links above, and the U.S. Storm Disaster Timeline, create one of your own, using this worksheet. Scale the time axis to include the years between 1600 and 2000.
Create "word balloons" to attach to the appropriate date on your timeline. Write a sentence or two describing the storm that hit the American mainland on that date.
Make sure to include the "Great Hurricane" and the "Gale."

Hurricane Katrina

Today, most hurricane lessons begin with Hurricane Katrina, so here are some links to some videos about it. If you're already worried about extra credit, you can do the following. Peruse the following links for fifteen minutes, and write a paragraph listing what you found to be the most interesting/informative parts of the videos. Post your information as a comment to this blog posting.

Homework

What should we do when we hear a hurricane or tornado warning on the news? Unfortunately, many of us don't have an emergency plan ready if these warnings were to happen tomorrow. There's a little information about tornadoes, but there's a lot more on hurricanes, so that's where we'll focus our investigations. Your homework for this class is to make a plan, for yourself, your family (including pets). The federal government has some suggestions on how to make an emergency plan. Governor David A. Paterson has proclaimed May 25-31 as Hurricane Preparedness Week in the Empire State. But we all live in New York City, and that's where most of our planning information is. Follow these steps in developing your emergency evacuation plan:

Find your home on the NYC Hurricane Evacuation Zone map. Answer the following questions.

Are you in Zone A, B, or C?
Where is your nearest evacuation center? Contact the center and find out if they have a plan in place for such an emergency?
Design an escape route, including subway contingencies.

Develop your own evacuation plan. Make sure to include your

Go Bag
Plans for your Pets.
Plans for meeting your family.

Contact your Evacuation Center either by phone or in writing. Ask them for any evacuation plan or other information the school may already have in place.

Class #2: The Effects of Global Warming

2009-01-23T15:39:00.005-05:00

Welcome to Natural Science Survey I/1N

GS-42150
Spring 2009
Professor Lewis
Syllabus

Example of a New York Science Times Article

"Cold Rush"

Here's some extra material on the article to look at while each group is answering their questions...

Recently, a plethora of California wildfires have expanded our conception of "national security" to environmental bounds already envisioned by most first world nations. Meanwhile, in the Atlanta metro area, a year-long drought has left hundreds of thousands of people while just a 100 day supply of drinking water. And here in the Northeast, blizzards have gone the way of the bison, making the profitable ice-fishing season all but nonexistent.

All of these weather events happened after the following article was published in the fall of 2007. Some people are saying that 2007 will go down as the year that global warming emerged from its theoretical cocoon, and sprung unto the world as a cold, hard fact. Please read the following excerpt, and follow the instructions below.

"Boots on the Ice."

This was the year that drought-crazed camels rampaged through a village in Australia, a manatee swam past Chelsea Piers in New York City’s Hudson River, and the Netherlands announced that its famous Elfstedentocht ice-skating race might have to be postponed forever. Armadillos reached northeast Arkansas. Wolves ate dogs in Alaska. Fire consumed 50 million acres of Siberia. Greenland lost a hundred gigatons of ice. The Inuit got air-conditioning units. The polar bear lurched toward the endangered-species list. India’s Ghoramara Island was mostly lost to the Bay of Bengal, Papua New Guinea’s Malasiga village was mostly lost to the Solomon Sea, and Alaska’s Shishmaref village decided to evacuate before being lost to the Chukchi Sea. Canadian scientists reported that the forty-square-mile Ayles ice shelf had broken off Ellesmere Island and formed a rapidly melting island of its own. A European satellite showed a temporary crack in the ice pack leading from northern Russia all the way to the North Pole. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration announced that last winter was the warmest since it began keeping records, which was in 1880. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced that eleven of the last twelve years were the warmest in human history.

This was the year that we began to believe in global warming—not in the abstract science of the prospect, which most people could already passively accept, but in the fact that there was money in it, power to be won and lost, scraps to tussle over, profit to be wrung from crisis. We stopped wondering whether climate change was real and started grappling with the consequences.

In April the issue of global warming went before the United Nations Security Council. The discussion was led by Britain, which houses its climate-change office, the Hadley Centre, in its Ministry of Defence, and which had recently asked its chief economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, to conduct a review of global warming’s likely effects on world markets. The cost of unchecked greenhouse-gas emissions will be the equivalent of losing 5 percent or more of global GDP a year, every year, forever. We are on the brink of an upheaval on the scale of the two world wars and the Great Depression.

Tropical Africa is expected to see a 9 to 14 percent drop in crop yields, and up to 250 million more people affected by drought. Nearly 200 millions south and East Asians will be threatened by sea-level rises resulting from collapsing ice sheets, and nearly a trillion dollars of regional GDP could be lost. In South America maize production will fall by 15 percent in fifty years and the dessicating Amazon will be pushed toward collapse, its forest replaced by savanna.

-- "Cold Rush: The coming fight for the melting north." McKenzie Funk Harpers, September 2007

Additional Links

FAQ
IPCC Summary
Stern Report
Global scale climate–crop yield relationships and the impacts of recent warming

Hurricanes, Tornadoes,
and New York City

In Class Assignment

Click on the 'comments' link at the bottom of this posting.
Select the 'Anonymous' Identity
Type your name at the top of the Comments box,
Type your answer to the question (2-3 sentences only), "What is global warming?" Make sure to include the following points in your answer:

"Ancient vs. Current" sunlight
Global Warming gases
The flow of the Sun's energy through the Earth's atmosphere and crust
When finished, click on the 'Publish Comment' button.

Discovering a New World, and New Weather

Hurricane History

Using the links above, and the U.S. Storm Disaster Timeline, create one of your own, using this worksheet. Scale the time axis to include the years between 1600 and 2000.
Create "word balloons" to attach to the appropriate date on your timeline. Write a sentence or two describing the storm that hit the American mainland on that date.
Make sure to include the "Great Hurricane" and the "Gale."

Hurricane Katrina

Emergency Evacuation Simulation

Homework

Find your home on the NYC Hurricane Evacuation Zone map. Answer the following questions.

Are you in Zone A, B, or C?
Where is your nearest evacuation center? Contact the center and find out if they have a plan in place for such an emergency?
Design an escape route, including subway contingencies.

Develop your own evacuation plan. Make sure to include your

Go Bag
Plans for your Pets.
Plans for meeting your family.

Contact your Evacuation Center either by phone or in writing. Ask them for any evacuation plan or other information the school may already have in place.

Extra Credit

Scientists often use graphs to demonstrate cause/effect relationships like the effects of global warming we discussed this class. Each of you will download a set of annual temperatures from the NASA web site, and graph the September data in five year increments. Follow these steps to do so.

Access NASA's Surface temperature data website
Click on the area of the world map that you would like to get temperature data from.
Choose one station name and post that name in your Anonymous Comment as described above. NOTE: Each student must choose their own unique station. Whoever posts a station name first gets that one. Every subsequent poster must choose a different station name that hasn't been chosen/posted.
Click on your station name's link. Below the resulting graph, click on the 'Download monthly data as text' link.
Scroll to the bottom of the data. You will graph the temperature data backward from September 2005, then September 2000, then September 1995, and so on, in five year increments, until the graph paper is filled with data points.

Boricua College Natural Science Survey

The Green Frontier -- in our backyard

What is a Green Environment?

Ten Years of Change in Northside Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The East River New York State Park

The Finger Building

Developing a Green Urban Environment

How Will Genetic Tests Determine Who We Are, and What We'll Do, Now and in the Future?

Do Now Punnett Squares

Genetic Diseases

Homework

Hurricanes

Urban Ecosystems

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Class #5: Designer Babies

How Will Genetic Tests Determine Who We Are, and What We'll Do, Now and in the Future?

Do Now

Homework

Class #3: Cooling the Waters

Hurricanes, Tornadoes,and New York City

In Class Assignment

Discovering a New World, and New Weather

Hurricane History

Hurricane Katrina

Homework

Class #2: The Effects of Global Warming

Welcome to Natural Science Survey I/1N

"Cold Rush"

"Boots on the Ice."

Hurricanes, Tornadoes,and New York City

In Class Assignment

Discovering a New World, and New Weather

Hurricane History

Hurricane Katrina

Homework

Extra Credit

Hurricanes, Tornadoes,
and New York City

Hurricanes, Tornadoes,
and New York City