Houses fronted by more street trees experienced lower crime rates than houses without street trees.

An interesting article explores the connection between street trees and human health. Check out Growing Quality of Life: Urban Trees, Birth Weight, and Crime by John Kirkland. There is a summary of the article below.

City dwellers can find many reasons to value neighborhood trees. Urban greenery provides relief from the built environment that many people find appealing. In fact, a previous study found that a tree in front of a home increased that home’s sale price by more than $7,000. Two new studies explore the measurable effects that urban trees and green spaces have on human health and crime rates.

Geoffrey Donovan, an economist and research forester with the Pacific Northwest Research Station, used public health data, crime statistics, tax records, aerial photos, and other information in the two recent studies. He found that women who live in houses with more trees are less likely to have underweight babies. The study on crime revealed a more complex relationship. Larger trees, including trees located near the street, are associated with a lower incidence of property crimes. Larger numbers of smaller trees—especially trees planted near the home, which may provide a screen for burglars—are associated with higher crime.

Cities within the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area are using this information as they rewrite street tree regulations. Likewise, local crime prevention programs and tree planting advocates are sharing the findings with urban residents.

You are part of a network. Get involved and share!

Did you know that you are part of a network? It's call of The Hive Learning Network NYC.

The Hive Learning Network NYC is a joint endeavor between the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Mozilla Foundation.  Hive links together libraries, museums, after-school programs and community-based organizations through collaborative, digital projects that create greater learning opportunities for youth.

Well guess what? Hive has a column on Huffington Post.  Huffington Post High School is a channel for youth involved in Hive programs (that's you!) to share their experiences/words/videos/podcasts/apps/etc. with their peers and to be published on a prestigious international news site. You'll see the first post, "The Future of Education" by Sharon Mizrahi (NYC), explores her unique and inspiring learning experience working with a range of cultural/civic/tech orgs through Hive. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharon-mizrahi/the-future-of-education_b_1020951.html

The second post, "Top 10 TV Episodes of My Childhood" by Matthew Byrd (CHI), is all about youth culture. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-byrd/top-10-tv-episodes-of-my-_b_1102102.html?ref=high-school

The only restriction is that contributors are over the age of 14. They can contribute once (or more if they'd like). It can be poetry, a podcast, a game...You can used something that you have already made and shared with your friends. As incentive (on top of being published on HuffPo - great for your resume/portfolio) you'll get a $25 gift card and a Hive T-shirt.

Get involved and share! Contact your UBN instructor.

My Project (2/3 of the way done)

This is my project two thirds of the way done. I'm working on the middle part now and I will post it when it is done. In the mean time though, can you guys just give me some feedback on this. I would really appreciate it. :) Thanks

Part 2

• The first plot that I observed in Central Park, right next to the Delacorte Theater. The are was very grassy, and had many trees. There weren’t very many animals in the plot. There were mostly dogs and people, which I couldn’t use, unfortunately. I was still able to get a good amount of information because there were some invertebrates crawling around in the grass and flying through the air next to the plot.

• The second plot that I observed was really a transect. It consisted of about 3 blocks of a consistent sidewalk. Most of the pictures that I was able to take were of concrete, or, the rare times that I got lucky, it was a patch of grass with a bush or a tree. This transect of data made me pretty upset because most of the areas that I looked at had no living organisms on or in them, besides trees or leaves, of course.

• The link below will direct you to an article by K. Tzoulas and P. James about the link between human well being, social and economical, and urban biodiversity:

http://bit.ly/t9guUp

hi guys here's what i have :

Biodiversity Media Project: Blog Post

In the summer of 2011 at the American Museum I studied urban biodiversity. Urban biodiversity is the study of how biodiversity is in a densely populated area such as New York City. It is very important to know about the life that resides next to one’s own. For this project, I took data regarding the types of life around the streets and parks of the big Apple. I used no rulers nor pipettes, instead, I counted upon tools that were mostly digital, including the HTC Aria, a Macbook, and several apps and programs to the job. Before commencing the study, I decided that it was likely that the there would be not much difference in the species richness between my plots and transects, because this was in an urban environment of over 10,000 people where humans were the dominant species.

My first plot was a 50x50 step plot. Located in the middle of Central Park, over a grassy meadow near the Central Park Oval. The plot, being very large required the use of randomization to analyze. Within it were several trees, many insects, a large mass of grass. We conducted the analyzation by using the website Random.org to produce us with a set of random numbers on our phones. We used those numbers to find the numbers of steps that we should take in order to find random spots throughout our plot. Whenever we can to a stop, we produced a circle on area that we were studying with a piece of string. Then a thorough examination of the area was conducted, sifting through soil, canvassing the trunks of the trees, brushing through the grass. Pictures were taken every section that we can past. In plot one, we came across the two large clusters of mushrooms at the base of a tree, we strongly suspected that although there were well over a hundred caps, the clusters were connected below the ground and were one large colony. Later, the idea of them being honey mushroom fungi emerged. On other trees we also observed many tiny mushrooms that involved deep squinting to fully observe. At some points, there was nothing but grass and weeds, in those spots, the we sifted to uncover organisms, though we came upon none.

The second was a transect that was shared by thousands of New Yorkers and tourists, the very sidewalks of the city. Once again, we called upon the numbers of Random.org, using the numbers generated to figure out the number of steps between each stop where we would take data. At many points, we came to a stop on solid asphalt, and could find organisms visible to the naked eye. The shoes and people wearing them had caused many of the other organisms to leave or get killed. At other stops, we came to a spot where a tree was planted in the asphalt and there we were able to find more organisms. There were trees, and in addition to that there were also various plants growing in the patches of soil that surrounded the tree. Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana) and pansies, (V. tricolor). We also identified some bright green vines that we suspected were potato vines

Glossary:

Abundance: The actual number of organisms of a species per unit of area or volume (Density).

Relative Abundance: The proportion or percentage of all organisms in a community or sample that are a particular species (Species Eveness).

Sampling effort: With a “small” sample rare species are not likely to be included. With a larger sample, rare species are more likely to be included.

Species Diversity: Two factors define species diversity. Species Richness, which is the number of species in community and Species Evenness, which is the Relative Abundance of the species.

Diversity: A community dominated by one or two species is considered to be less diverse than one in which several different species have a similar abundance. As species richness and evenness increase, so diversity increases.

Simpson's Diversity Index: The Simpson's Index (D) is a measure of diversity which takes into account both richness and evenness. Simpson's Index (D) measures the probability that two individuals randomly selected from a sample will belong to the different species (or some category other than species). The formula for calculating D is

D = 1- [Sum(n / N)²]

n = the total number of organisms of a particular species

N = the total number of organisms of all species

The value of D ranges between 1 and 0. With this index, 1 represents infinite diversity and 0, no diversity. That is, the bigger the value of D, the greater the diversity.


Shannon-Weaver Diversity Index: Shannon-Weaver Index combines the number of species present and evenness into a single index:  D = -Σ p_i ln p_i
University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa Biology 301 & 301L Marine Ecology and Evolution and Center for Earth and Environmental Science Indiana University ~ Purdue University, Indianapolis ARBOR Project - BIRD BIODIVERSITY

• n_i  The number of individuals in species i; the abundance of species i.
• S The number of species. Also called species richness.
• N The total number of all individuals
• p_i The relative abundance of each species, calculated as the proportion of individuals of a given species to the total number of individuals in the community: 

The value of D The value of D is highest when species are equally abundant.

Link

Heres the data and other stuffy stuff... do not mess with it because it is important. It is not the real data, just use it for formulas.
-Hollis
http://bit.ly/rPlVBI

My Project

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BxNivWTTuY82NzI1NDVmNDMtNjYxOC00ZmQ4LTkyOTMtMjk3ZWUwYjViNGUw&hl=en_US

This is my project so far... disregard the last page please!

hey guys here's my progress most of it can't be seen, because I spent a lot of time working on finding the measures of natural tendency.

Biodiversity Media Project: Blog Post
In the summer of 2011 at the American Museum I studied urban biodiversity. Urban biodiversity is the study of how biodiversity is in a densely populated area such as New York City. It is very important to know about the life that resides next to one’s own. For this project, I took data regarding the types of life around the streets and parks of the big Apple. I used no rulers nor pipettes, instead, I counted upon tools that were mostly digital, including the HTC Aria, a Macbook, and several apps and programs to the job. Before commencing the study, I decided that it was likely that the there would be not much difference in the species richness between my plots and transects, because this was in an urban environment of over 10,000 people where humans were the dominant species.
My first plot was a 50x50 step plot. Located in the middle of Central Park, over a grassy meadow near the Central Park Oval. The plot, being very large required the use of randomization to analyze. Within it were several trees, many insects, a large mass of grass. We conducted the analyzation by using the website Random.org to produce us with a set of random numbers on our phones. We used those numbers to find the numbers of steps that we should take in order to find random spots throughout our plot. Whenever we can to a stop, we produced a circle on area that we were studying with a piece of string. Then a thorough examination of the area was conducted, sifting through soil, canvassing the trunks of the trees, brushing through the grass. Pictures were taken every section that we can past. In plot one, we came across the two large clusters of mushrooms at the base of a tree, we strongly suspected that although there were well over a hundred caps, the clusters were connected below the ground and were one large colony. Later, the idea of them being honey mushroom fungi emerged. On other trees we also observed many tiny mushrooms that involved deep squinting to fully observe. At some points, there was nothing but grass and weeds, in those spots, the we sifted to uncover organisms, though we came upon none.

My Movie Progress

My Movie

Progress For Movie Project

Hey guys, this is what I have so far completed for my project:

• Information about biodiversity
• A few clips from my plot
• An interesting clip of a sign of animal life in my plot
• The length so far is 3:04
• Background information on where my plot is located.

Next time, I hope to get my video length up to at least 4:00 and also add a few more clips from my plot and also other locations in which biodiversity can be found.

hey guys, Here's what I have so far:
Biodiversity Media Project: Blog Post
In the summer of 2011 at the American Museum I studied urban biodiversity. Urban biodiversity is the study of how biodiversity is in a densely populated area such as New York City. It is very important to know about the life that resides next to one’s own. For this project, I took data regarding the types of life around the streets and parks of the big Apple. I used no rulers nor pipettes, instead, I counted upon tools that were mostly digital, including the HTC Aria, a Macbook, and several apps and programs to the job. Before commencing the study, I decided that it was likely that the there would be not much difference in the species richness between my plots and transects, because this was in an urban environment of over 10,000 people where humans were the dominant species.
My first plot was a 50x50 step plot. Located in the middle of Central Park, over a grassy meadow near the Central Park Oval. The plot, being very large required the use of randomization to analyze. Within it were several trees, many insects, a large mass of grass. We conducted the analyzation by using the website Random.org to produce us with a set of random numbers on our phones. We used those numbers to find the numbers of steps that we should take in order to find random spots throughout our plot. Whenever we can to a stop, we produced a circle on area that we were studying with a piece of string. Then a thorough examination of the area was conducted, sifting through soil, canvassing the trunks of the trees, brushing through the grass. Pictures were taken every section that we can past. In plot one, we came across the two large clusters of mushrooms at the base of a tree, we strongly suspected that although there were well over a hundred caps, the clusters were connected below the ground and were one large colony. Later, the idea of them being honey mushroom fungi emerged.

I'm in the middle of my video right now, and I'm deciding the plots at central park.