Final Project Discussions

On Monday, December 1, instead of meeting as a group, we will meet individually to discuss your final projects. A schedule will be e-mailed to the class.

Assignment for Urban Outback Final Project: Wild NYC Maps

Time Line
Friday, November 21—turn in your proposed topic, including a brief description
Tuesday, December 2—turn in a section of your script in a Word document
Monday, December 8—turn in a draft of your final script in a Word document
Monday, December 15—turn in the URL for your finished map

Description
For your final project, you will create an online narrative map on a topic relating to the natural history or environment of New York City. The content you create—text, photographs, and/or video—will be integrated into Google Maps and be viewable over the Internet.

For this project, please select a topic, such as:
--the story of NYC’s drinking water
--the role of wildlife in the city’s history
--how geology and ecosystems influence the city’s architecture and layout
--alternative energy in NYC
--urban nature writing/literature (including poetry, nonfiction, historical documents)
--how Native Americans and early New Yorkers related to and used their natural environment as demonstrated through archaeological sites

Once your topic has been finalized, continue to do research and identify approximately 8 locations in the city through which you can tell your topic’s story. (For example, if your topic was “NYC’s Drinking Water,” one location might be Foley Square in downtown Manhattan, the former site of Collect Pond, where early residents drew fresh water.)

The narrative that accompanies your series of locations may be conceived of as a historical tour or a journalistic endeavor. The locations will be numbered—meaning that there is a beginning and an end to the “tour” or “story.” If your topic has a historical component, the locations can be sequenced as an informal time line. Otherwise, the locations can be tied together, using a loose narrative—similar to a news-feature story.

Once you have done your research and selected the locations, write a script. Write an introduction, setting up the overall subject. Then write an entry for each “stop” on the map. Each entry should be about 150 to 200 words.

Each stop on the map should also be accompanied by a visual component. These could include:
-- an original or historical video of the location;
-- an original photo of the location;
-- a historical illustration or photo;
--OR instead of text plus an audio-free visual, you could make a short video of you reading your script at the location

Here is an example of a Wild NYC GoogleMap in progress (there are only 2 locations shown), featuring simple text and images. (Click on the placemarkers to see the text and images.)

A few more overall parameters:
--This project requires thinking spatially and emphasizing place. The locations on your map may be restricted to a relatively small area—such as the confines of Central Park. Or they may span the five boroughs.
--Information should be factual and accurate, and it should be placed in a geographic and historical context whenever possible.
--Data and statistics are welcome.
--Feel free to collaborate—and let us know if you need help.
--Keep track of your sources: books, articles, web sites, personal interviews, etc. Although this project does not require footnoting, you need to know where your information came from if queried.

Once you’ve created your script and content, you’re ready to upload it and create your final map.

Here is a short video tutorial, showing how to put content into your own Google Map

And here are the basic steps for putting your content into a personalized Google Map:

1. Sign up for a Gmail account if you don’t already have one: After you create your account, don’t forget to write down your login name and password.

2. Go to Google Maps. Sign in, using your Gmail login and password.

3. Click on “My Maps”

4. Click “Create a New Map”

5. Give your map a title, and use the description section to write an introduction to your map project.

6. Use the zoom and navigation functions in the upper left-hand corner of the map to zero in on New York City and the site of your first location.

7. Use the “Add a Placemark” feature to put a placemark in your first location. (The placemark control looks like a little blue balloon; it’s located at the top left of the map next to the navigation controls. Click the blue balloon once, drag the placemark onto the map, and click again to drop it in the appropriate location.)

8. When the information window opens above the new placemark, give your first location a title (e.g., “1. My First Location”). Then insert the text for that location from your script into the description field.

9. To add photos, illustrations, or other images to the information windows, your images first must be uploaded to a web site such as Google Picasa Web.

Then, follow these steps to add your photos to Google Maps:
a. Click the appropriate placemark/location. The info window appears.
b. Click Edit.
c. Choose Edit HTML.
d. In another window, find the photo you want on Google Picasa Web. Copy the snippet of code that lets you embed the photo into a web site or blog.
e. Paste the embed code into the description field of your placemark/location.
f. Click OK to save your changes.

10. To add videos to the information windows, your videos must first be uploaded to YouTube. (You will need to create a YouTube account if you don’t already have one.)

To add your videos to Google Maps:
a. Click the appropriate placemark/location. The info window appears.
b. Click Edit.
c. Choose Edit HTML.
d. In another window, find the video you want on YouTube. Copy the snippet of code that lets you embed the video into a web site or blog.
e. Paste the embed code into the description field of your placemark/location.
f. Click OK to save your changes.

Note: At first, using Google Maps may seem glitchy. But it gets easier. Play around with the Google Maps application before working on your final map: Get familiar with the navigation controls. Experiment with adding placemarks, loading in content, saving content, and editing it.

For more details, visit the Google Maps User Guide.

Tenth Class: The Bronx Zoo a.k.a. the Wildlife Conservation Society

Please rendezvous on Monday, November 17, at 9:50 am at the Asia Gate of the Bronx Zoo at the intersection of Boston Road and Bronx Park South.

To get there, take the #5 subway from Grand Central station to the West Farms Square/East Tremont Avenue station. When you exit the subway, walk north on Boston Road for about 4 blocks to reach the zoo entrance.

At 11 am, we will meet with Eric Sanderson, a landscape ecologist in charge of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Mannahatta Project. The goal of the project is to use old maps and geographical clues to create an accurate picture of Manhattan's biota and habitats at the time of European colonization.

Times Square area as it might have looked in 1609 vs. today

(images from the New Yorker)

Ninth Class: Energy Production and NYC's Carbon Footprint

Class meets on Monday, November 10, at 9:40 am at the entrance to the Roosevelt Island tramway on 2nd Avenue between 59th and 60th streets in Manhattan.

(To get there, you can take the 4 or 5 train from Grand Central to 59th Street, and then walk east from the station to 2nd Avenue. If you end up walking to the tram from the Williams Club, be sure to bring your Metrocards, which you will need to board the tram.)

We will be taking the 9:45 am tram to Roosevelt Island and using the local Starbucks as our classroom for about half an hour. Then we will walk north along the East River to meet a guest speaker, hydrodynamic engineer Jonathan Colby from Verdant Power, who will be talking to the class about alternative energy generated by the tides in the East River.

Eighth Class: Manhattan's Last Forest

On Monday, November 3, the class will head uptown for a tour of Inwood Hill Park--home to Manhattan's last forest, numerous Native American archaeological sites, and a human-made nesting platform for bald eagles. Please rendezvous at the park at 9:45 am.

To get there:
--Head over to the 42nd Street/Times Square subway station and take the uptown #1 train to 215th St.

--After you exit the train, walk north to 218th Street.

--Turn left on 218th street, and walk a few blocks to the entrance of Inwood Hill Park. Then walk into the park and meet at the benches alongside the lagoon.

If you depart from the Williams Club around 9 or a little before, you should arrive at approximately 9:45 am. Be sure to wear good walking shoes (sneakers are fine), as this trip will involve a significant amount of walking and hiking.

Third Assignment: Water & Newtown Creek

Note: This assignment is due on Friday, October 31.

1. Look at this interactive video for an explanation of New York City’s water supply and wastewater disposal system.

Question: Compare the water system in your hometown to the system in New York City. How is it similar? How is it different? (For example, what is the source of the water—and how does it get to your tap? How is wastewater and sewage disposed of?)

2. Newtown Creek is a 3.5-mile-long tidal estuary. Once fed by freshwater creeks (now paved over) in Brooklyn and Queens, it is now one of the most polluted waterways in the nation.

The wastewater treatment plant on Newtown Creek is the city's largest. It processes sewage for 1 million residents, mainly from the east side of Manhattan below 72nd Street—including the Williams Club. Although the plant was recently upgraded and can handle 50 percent more volume than in the past, “combined sewage overflows” (CSOs) cause untreated sewage to spill over into Newtown Creek after heavy rain.

When we pulled a cup of water from Newtown Creek on Monday, it looked surprisingly clear. But was it clean? Please view these statistics and note how the water quality changes dramatically following rain events at the location our class visited and even more so further up the creek and farther from the tidal action of the East River.

Now watch this PBS presentation on Newtown Creek. (Click “watch and listen on the right-hand side of the web page).

Questions:

a. About three weeks before we visited Newtown Creek, the water in the creek was tested (see here and here). What were the findings?

b. Did anything in the PBS presentation alter your perception of your field experience at Newtown Creek?

c. Why do you think people care about this profoundly polluted waterway?

3. The nature walk at the Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant took 9 years and $3.2 million to complete. It uses motifs that are seen at many riverside parks in New York—erratic boulders, native plants, Native American words etched into stone steps, and nautical themes. It also provides public access to the creek’s waterfront for the first time in decades.

Questions:

a. How would you describe the park and its surroundings? (Feel free to use comparison, metaphor, and your own personal response. But also include details of what you saw, heard, and smelled.)

b. What did you think of the idea of a park/nature walk in this location?

Seventh Class: Fresh Kills Landfill

On Saturday, October 25, we're heading to the Fresh Kills landfill with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

Please rendezvous at 11:15 am at the main entrance to the Staten Island Ferry terminal in lower Manhattan.

--To get there, you should leave the Williams Club at about 10:45 am.

--Head over to Grand Central station and take the downtown 4 or 5 subway to Bowling Green.

--Then walk three blocks south on State Street to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

--We will catch the 11:30 am ferry to Staten Island to meet up with the Parks Department bus on the other side. (The ferry ride is about 25 minutes and we're meeting the bus at noon on the "taxi" level of the terminal in Staten Island.)

The bus tour will last about two hours, so we should get back into Manhattan at 2:30 or 3 pm.