Shannon Thomas
MHC 200
BioBlitz Response
When I first got an email about Bioblitz, I thought it would be something along the lines of bird watching. I’m not a very outdoorsy person, to be quite honest, and I really wasn’t looking forward to going to this. I’ve never even taken the Staten Island Ferry before so I was pretty skeptical of whether or not I would enjoy Bioblitz.
Firstly, I was surprised about how scientific Bioblitz really was. Bioblitz was scientific in the way the experts there were able to educate us on various fields and areas. One example is botany. Many of us do not have strong backgrounds in botany, and it is therefore very important that they taught us about the biodiversity of plants in Freshkills Park. Additionally, we, as students, were helping the scientists there in confirming what species of animals and plants exist in the park, because that was pretty much what Bioblitz was about. By helping the guides gain a greater understanding of the biodiversity of the park, the event proved to be scientific through its contributions to the scientific study of the park.
Though Bioblitz was rather informative scientifically, it did some have bothersome limitations. To begin with, we didn’t have much context or background knowledge going in. Also, there was very little hands on work, and when there was, we did not have much time to get enough work done. I also would’ve have preferred if we did more hands on work and then heard the guides speak about our findings afterwards. We could have also shared our findings with the other groups, such as the arachnids group, and gotten an idea of their experiences even though we only saw a sample of the park.
Although I wasn’t looking forward to this event at all, as I reflect back on it now, I am beginning to realize just how significant it was for the students, the experts and scientists working on the project, and the park itself. Working with two botanists on plants, we all examined different plant species in certain areas of the park. Although it felt like a monotonous lecture, it was interesting at times because botany is not something students delve into really, unless they take specific classes for it in undergrad. Even though I wish we were able to do something more interactive and direct, I felt as if the lecturing was still successful in arousing the interest of most students. Bioblitz definitely benefitted the park, because as more and more students continue to go there for future events such as these, scientists can continue to collect more info about the park’s biodiversity. They can then use this data for their research to improve the park and its ecosystem.
Bioblitz did indeed introduce me to a new aspect of science. The scientific method is relatively unexplored during science classes, as opposed to memorizing facts and concepts and applying them to exams. I hope we can further enhance our experiences with learning science through the application of what we learned at Bioblitz into the curriculum of this seminar.
