Citizenship week goes to Maplewood town hall

Campers learned about local government and town meetings.  Town clerk Liz Fritzen led the kids in a town meeting in which they learned how to get a stop sign placed at a dangerous intersection. They learned about how the town government is designed to keep the residents informed of issues and laws and fosters their input.  She also explained the difference between an ordinance, resolution, and proclamation  She also explained how town government can be a vehicle for resident to communicate with the state and the federal government. 

Here the kids are in the very office where the township committee meets. 

Horns of Conservation

Campers make horns as symbols of conservation of endangered species. 

M

At the Raptor Trust.

Campers visit a Raptor recovery site.  Raptors are carnivorous birds and the Trust was set up to nurse sick or injured birds back to health. 

Unfortunately some birds are permanently injured, such as the bald eagles. 

Campers visit Turtleback Zoo to learn about endangered species

Margaritte was our Educator at Turtleback Zoo.

She took us to the new giraffe exhibit to learn about them.  Their numbers have fallen by half in the past couple decades due to the top two obvious and sad reasons: habitat loss and poaching for their meat and tails.  Margaritte stressed that as a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums all animals in the zoo originate from breeding animals already in captivity.  Only on rare occasions, when the gene pool of a species is in danger of breeding unhealthy animals, will the association of zoos take animals from the wild, and those animals are usually in protective environments already. 

Here Cassy the naturalist is explaining about the giraffe's diet.  We got to feed the huge herbivore. 

We also learned about the future sea turtle recovery center that is being built. 

Being a coastal state, New Jersey has a lot of sea turtles off shore and in our bays.  Turtles can suffer from hypothermia if they get stuck in a bay when the weather suddenly turns cold. The new facility will be able to help them endure the winter up hear until they can be rerelease in the spring. 

Campers visit Chinatown and discover Link NYC

The infrastructure of a city now also has to deal with the internet connections and access speeds that can be provided the citizens and businesses.  Like roads, the internet is a medium for communication and commerce.  New York City is aware of this and has taken action.

New York city is replacing those forgotten phone booths all over the city with new high-speed internet sites like the one above.


This video by the Wall Street Journal
explains how they work and how effective they are.

This video will explain how to connect when you are in the city.

Campers learn about the role of conflict in endangering species

Animal Crackers Risk is a version of risk in which animals die on territories that endure conflict. (The winner gets to eat the carcass.). If conflict continues in the territory the animals are endangered and may not come back. If conflict occurs again in that territory the animals are extirpated there.  When this happens to a continental region extinction happens. The goal is to control an area through power or alliances to protect the animals.  When peace reigns on a continent one (or the alliance) can manage the wildlife and harvest (eat) the proliferating animal crackers. 

Camp S.O. Cool learns about endangered species with Jamie Wasserman of Guru Travel

Jamie Wasserman of Guru Travel talked to campers about helping Asian Elephants and Sri Lankens get along.  Farmers who were displaced into central Sri Lanka during the civil war have their farms raided by elephants passing through and eating crops.  To help the farmers and the elephants at the same time Ms Wasserman encourages the planting of orange trees around the farms.  Elephants don't like the citrus and the farmers will be able to sell the fruit when the trees are large enough.  We learned that Asian elephants have a very different situation than African elephants due to their lack of tusks. Check out Guru Travel at the website.  Just search Guru Travel. 

Campers are treated to the latest in Rolled Ice Cream!

10 Below is a fantastic ice cream store at the foot of Mott Street.  The roll ice cream.

Sophia says it tastes best while playing an app on your phone!

There is one size, one cost ($7), and one awesome time!!

Campers are treated to the latest in Rolled Ice Cream!

10 Below is a fantastic ice cream store at the foot of Mott Street.  The roll ice cream.

Sophia says it tastes best while playing an app on your phone!

There is one size, one cost ($7), and one awesome time!!

Campers Visit the Smallest Museum in the World!!

The Mmuseumm is a museum in an elevator shaft in Cortland Alley.



Everyone thought I was kidding when I turned up a scary alley north of the Civic Center and went over to a mysterious door.  But with windows cut into the doors both high and low, we could enjoy the 5th season of the Mmuseum.


Here is the list of what we saw.

Lunch at the Collect Pond Park

After all that walking it was nice to get off our feet and eat.

After lunch Lisa regaled us with information about the filth that made its way into the Collect Pond from the tanneries, butchers, and brewery that were located nearby.

Part Two: Five Points

We made our way over to Columbus Park for a snack.
Here is an 1803 map of the neighborhood.


The Mulberry Bend section of Five Points is the bent block to the right of the pond labeled "Sixth Ward."  The pond was the Collect Pond, a fetid disgusting and ill-used fresh water resource that was quickly filled in and built upon.  Due to the miasma theory of disease, only the poor Irish and other foreigners settled in the area.

I showed the campers Jacob Riis' photos of the area while we had our snack.  Ugh!

Here is a map of our trip through the area.



We saw the oldest tenement, at 65 Mott Street, a 7-story structure built when only 2-story buildings were in the area.  And we saw the Bloody Angle, aka Doyers Street, where Chinese Tongs fought and killed each other in the early 1900s.  But we also imagined the Almack, or Pete William's Place, at the corner of Bayard and Baxter Streets, where we learned from Gregory Hines that tap was invented.   William Henry Lane, who specialized in the African Shuffle, had dance competitions with John Diamond, and Irishman who clogged.  They would trade off imitating each other's styles, and ended up fusing the new style Tap!

Camp S.O. Cool visits Chinatown and Five Points

First stop was Grand St and Chrystie St., where we looked at the blocks of tenements knocked down to create a Sara D Roosevelt Park, a series of playgrounds between Chrystie and Forsythe Streets that was made in the 1930s after knocking down tenements (which we learned about from the Tenement Museum).



Second stop was to walk past 81 Bowery
, where we reflected on the videos we saw about the modern tenement that was on the 4th floor of the building.



Interior Photos by Annie Ling

 http://annielingphoto.com/81-bowery/\

We are shocked to consider that there are still tenement conditions for people living in NYC.

Ben noticed the Sun Bright SRO Hotel
across the street which we had also learned about.


After Walking past the oldest brick townhouse in Manhattan, we found the last public bit of Chinatown secret tunnels at 8 Chatham Sq. the home of the Wing Fat Mission.


After entering the building the guard told us not to go down stairs: there were businesses there.  I explained that we just wanted to look at the tunnel and we were a school group.  I had seen and read about the tunnel and knew that only one half of it was able to be accessed today and didn't want to miss out on it.  Here is a shot of the tunnel from the history channel show on underground NYC.



Nothing too impressive today; just offices, but what exactly happens behind all those closed doors!
(Sorry, infected by History Channel drama!)

More in the next blog entry!

Donate to the Tenement Museum

Ben decided he wanted to donate to the museum.  Well done!

Finished mosaics (except for grouting)!

Holden 's

Bennet's

Sophia's