ITSRG

BITS Program participants are walking Philadelphia, braving heat and sun, to examine landscapes of Fairmount Park. On Temple University's Main Campus, they are wearing their new Temple IDs to work in computer labs, libraries, classrooms, and offices as interns and as service learners. They are charged with creating social media projects related to environmental issues and to depict the observations they are making on their field assignments.

Last week, Service Learning students completed Sadie's Parkway Tour - a 3 mile long loop from Love Park to the Art Museum of Philadelphia. Along the way, students examined the changes in the pedestrian landscape.  They explored the uses of Fairmount Park areas around the river once they arrived at the Art Museum.

Tomorrow, we begin a week-long examination of the lower trail of the Wissahickon Park and along the Schuylkill Banks pathway near Falls Bridge. Friends of the Wissahickon's Kevin Groves provided students with an orientation to their visit last week.

On main campus, interns and service learners are gaining the IT, geography, mapping and social media skills they will need to document the environmental problems they are examining. Some are mapping bike racks on Main Campus as part of Temple's new Fuji Bikes program; others are preparing to mount a mock environmental trial. All of the students are writing blog posts about their experiences.

Here are just three of the many blogs currently being developed as part of BITS Summer Intensive 2009:

Environmental Research Forum - This internship group is blogging about all the green internship sites across Temple University's campus this summer

Stories from a PSU Student - This blog is being developed as a journal of one participant's comments on their internship experience working for ITSRG this summer

ITSRG Blogger Support Group - This blog was created by ITSRG staff member, Kelly George, to share tips for ITSRG mentors on how to engage students in creating their own blogs!

Michele Masucci, Director
ITSRG - Temple University

This week, BITS Participants are walking the Benjamin Franklin Parkway with digital cameras and clipboards in hand. They are examining three aspects of this iconic Philadelphia landscape. First, they are searching for unexpected features, unique historical and cultural juxtapositions, signs of competing uses, and the use of symbols to represent Philadelphia's urban identity and history. Second, the BITS team is examining the design and environmental characteristics of the Parkway. Finally, they are assessing the relationship between the pedestrian and transportation modalities of the space.

Here are links to institutions and organizations we encountered along the way.

Schulkill Banks
Center City and Fairmount are connected via a new, paved path for pedestrians, cyclist, wheelchair, stroller, and roller use.

The Water Works
The Delaware River Basin includes the watersheds of the Wissahickon Creek, the Schulkill River and the Delaware River. This educational center is a resource for learning about the historical development and contemporary challenges of those waterways.

Logan Square Neighborhood Association
"The square is a circle." This comment has been echoed at the foot of the Swann Fountain. Check out the LSNA's history page here.

Sadie's First Walk
Here is a map of the walk route, updated regularly to add new photos and links of interested based on our visits.

Click Here to read our prior post on the Parkway walk and associated Resource Links.

Michele Masucci, Director
ITSRG - Temple University

ITSRG has been examining web-maps during the past year. There have been two aspects of web maps we find of interest. First, we are interested in the data that is being visualized by the map. Second, we are interested in who is contributing to the data sets and the content of comments related to the maps that are disseminated. We have created a separate page for maps we have featured in blog posts called WebMaps. You can explore our archived comments about featured maps there.

Here are a few recently published web maps you may find of interest. Click on the images to read the stories.

Official Map of Michigan?

LAPD Interactive Crime Map

NYT Broad Unemployment

www.philadelphiabuildings.org

Tomorrow, BITS Interns and Service Learners will walk the Ben Franklin Parkway as part of their respective examinations of historic landscapes and green spaces in Philadelphia. Interns are creating a virtual reality that includes various digital media to depict the iconic planned city park system from a contemporary perspective. Service Learners are examining green spaces throughout the Fairmount Park system and in the city. They will analyze the different uses and users of the park spaces and document the different types of green spaces incorporated in the park system. Their observations will be drawn upon to create designs for new trails, marking existing trails, and mapping routes that the general public can use within the park system, including both Fairmount Park and Wissahickon Park venues.

Here are some links that may be of interest for students and readers alike:

Ben Franklin Parkway Rehabilitation Project - The Parkway is one of Philadelphia' planned park settings. Explore this site to review old photos and maps and learn about plans to maintain the spaces and improve user experiences throughout the area. Click here to view the map.

Sadie's First Walk - Here is the route we will take and points of interest. This map will updated throughout the next few days, so check here often to see what is new.

Gmaps Pedometer - Use this tool to analyze the distance between points of interest and the route we take. See how the differences change depending on the settings chosen for mapping the path. See if you can recreate the path from Sadie's First Walk.

Love Park - Known internationally to Philadelphia's millions of annual visitors, extreme athletes, community organizers, and residents alike for it's quirky LOVE statue and ever changing users.

Julian Abele - The Art Museum of Philadelphia was designed by African American architect Julian Abele. Read more about his role in the design and his professional accomplishments here. Investigate a database about architects and their designs across Philadelphia here.

Michele Masucci, Director
ITSRG - Temple University

We are exploring fun links that can help students learn information and communication skills as well as how to use on line applications to collaborate on projects. Here are some we have found that students enjoy using AND that introduce important skills in searching for information, interpreting data, problem solving, and fostering an understanding of core concepts in science, technology, engineering and math. What do you think?

Millsbury Online

Wired Science

Computer Security Quiz

The Fact Monster

The Control Room

BITS Students examine a satellite image of a Philly locale

Researchers around Temple University’s Campus have welcomed BITS participants into their research centers, study zones, and smart classrooms as part of a six-week summer intensive program to learn sophisticated information and communication technology skills and applications. Next week, BITS students will visit the Digilab, a center for using virtual realities to support e-health research.

The Sbarro Health Research Organization’s Digilab, is directed by Dr. Giuseppe Russo, a molecular biologist and bioinformatics specialist. He, along with Geography and Urban Studies graduate student Liv Raddatz, will work with six students to create a virtual reality in three dimensions that will depict a local landscape in Philadelphia. The students will investigate the landscape using traditional geographic field methods to identify key cultural, environmental, and historic aspects of a space of their choice. They will use information technologies like digital photography, online mapping applications, and podcasts to visualize and record their observations about the landscape they depict. They will also disseminate the information they gather on the Internet using such social media applications as Blogger and Flickr.

They will work with Dr. Russo to compile those digital bits of information into a three-dimensional rendering of the space that can be navigated virtually. The students will have the opportunity to work in SHRO’s Digilab to envision and navigate the landscape in three dimensions.

The applications of this technology are multifaceted. Three-dimensional spaces can be explored in different ways than conventional two-dimensional maps because both volume and magnitude are evident in the information sets. When applied to locations, the third dimension supports the analysis of landscape transitions, economic impacts and communications that factors in the effects of differences in the heights and design of buildings, economics of agglomeration when businesses are grouped in close proximities, and multiplying effects when different cultural institutions and historical centers are found in the same locations to create a community and legacy through time. The health applications are equally profound when information is visualized in three dimensions. The inner mechanics of cell functions can be examined in three dimensions, permitting researchers to see processes that are often hidden from two-dimensional views. Alternatively, researchers can also use these technologies in the treatment of patients who are experiencing cognitive and psychological changes that are impacting their quality of lives. When e-communications tools are combined with the creation of three-dimensional virtual realities, researchers and educators alike can interact with each other over large distances in real time to investigate a specific place, a patient’s needs, or participate in a lecture and demonstration.

This internship is just one of ten different ones that provide students and young adults engaged in BITS to gain skills and knowledge about state of the art information technology skills and their applications for both learning and research.

Michele Masucci,  Ph.D.
Director, ITSRG
Temple University

BITS 09 Intern, Jen Caddell and Philadelphia's Mayor Michael Nutter

On June 24, 2009, Philadelphia's Mayor Michael Nutter held a press conference at Temple University's Technology Center to launch Work Ready Philadelphia's Green Jobs Initiatives for Philadelphia Youth. The program represents one tier of the city's use of federal stimulus funding to foster the development of economic opportunities for young people through growing a green economy.

ITSRG is proud to be a part of the Green Jobs Initiative through sponsoring the BITS Summer Intensive Program 2009 this year from July 6 - August 14, 2009 on Temple University's Main Campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

BITS 09 will involve over 150 Philadelphia youth aged 14 - 24 an opportunity to enhance their geographic knowledge and computer, Internet, social media, graphic arts, and research skills in a university environment through two program models - an internship experience and a service learning project. Both will enable youth to enhance their digital skills, which are increasingly in demand in a college and in the workforce.
 
The service-learning project will engage youth to work  with Temple students and volunteers with the Sustainable Trails iniative of the Friends of the Wissahickon Park. Service learners will document the multiple ways the Wissahickon section of Fairmount Park is used by humans and wildlife. Service learners will work in small teams supervised by Temple University students and park volunteers to develop data sets related to decisions about where to place markers on new trails. They will also assist with the creation of a multimedia project that reflects the park.

Service learners will also use the datasets they create to develop team projects consisting of online maps and blogs that illustrate how competing uses of the park are balanced. Students will gain skills and practical experiences with Google Earth and Google Maps, blog applications and multimedia techniques to share the information they gather with a Web audience.

BITS 09 participants placed in internship experiences will work in small terms at either Temple University's Main Campus or with ITSRG community partners. Experiences will be designed to provide interns with career readiness skills and hands-on activities that enhance their knowledge of environment problems and research.

Interns will be placed in the Sbarro Health Research Organization's Digilab, the Social Science Data Library, the Department of Civil Engineering's Alaska Valdez project, the Blockson Collection, ITSRG, the Office of Sustainability, the Fu

Throughout  the summer, the Interns will work in teams to develop a web-based multimedia project that reflects their internship experience. Interns will gain skills around group project work, website design, and multimedia applications related to environmental problems and research.

In addition, all summer intensive students will attend regular workshops focused building on college and work ready skills.

This program is made possible with generous support from Philadelphia Youth Network through the Mayor's Green Jobs Initiative and through Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development.

ITSRG Staff Training

ITSRG is pleased to prepare for the start of the BITS Summer Intensive Program - 2009. 150 high school students from Philadelphia will participate in programs from July 6 through August 15. The experience will feature environmental research internships and a service learning program aimed at creating a set of place markers for the Wissahickon Park in collaboration with Friends of the Wissahickon. High school students will be supported with work-ready jobs as part of Mayor Nutter's Green Jobs initiative.

Temple University undergraduate and graduate students will serve as mentors and program facilitators for the programs. The programs aim to improve student skills related to information and communication technologies, geography, making maps, and way-finding. All high school participants will create social media projects such as blogs, collaborative maps, and digital photo collections. In addition, students will gain experiences in conducting geographic field work related to environmental problems.

The program was made possible through funding from the Philadelphia Youth Network and the Philadelphia Network for Neighborhood Development.

For more information about our summer programs, contact ITSRG at 215-204-3596 or email us at itsrg2007@gmail.com.

Program Coordinators Kelly George and Aaron Searson

Mentors Mihn Nyguen and Aadil Patel describe the toy they made during a team building exercise

A few more toys!