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

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

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