Baltimore Climate Strike Rally
On Friday, September 20, 2019, dozens of Poly students attended the Baltimore Climate Strike to call attention to climate change in front of Baltimore's City Hall. The event was organized by students from a number of Baltimore City high schools, including Poly. Poly students participated by marching through the Inner Harbor, making and carrying signs, and by speaking about climate change in front of the crowd.
Below: Student roster for the strike.
Below: Student roster for the strike.
Below: Students making posters for the climate strike.
Poly students are ready to rally!
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Environmental Justice Mayoral Forum
On February 24, 2020, Onalee Anderson, Poly senior and head of the Aquaponics Club, spoke at the mayoral forum for environmental justice. She polled her AP Environmental Science class and our green leadership team for possible questions that she could ask the candidates. Below are pictures of the forum and her in line to speak; she can be seen second in line in the first picture.
Research Practicums
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute is the only public high school in Baltimore City and one of the few in Maryland to offer an intensive research practicum, which places high school students in the laboratories of scientists for STEM research at prestigious locations like Johns Hopkins University, UMBC, and the Institute for Marine and Environmental Technology. Although not all research projects focus on environmental topics, many of them do. The Ingenuity Practicum is a two year research placement for Ingenuity students. Below are a couple examples of abstracts of these projects completed by Poly students to address environmental issues in the Baltimore community .
Helen Schott’s Abstract: Christopher Swan’s lab in the geography and environmental systems department at UMBC
2018-2019
The purpose of my research is to investigate if water stress is a possible factor contributing to the decline in populations of native plant species and the increase of non-native species in urban areas. I wanted to know if native and non-native species differ in their responses to water stress, which can be quantified through stomatal conductance. If a plant is experiencing water stress, it will close its stomata to prevent the loss of water through them, resulting in lower stomatal conductance. I measured the stomatal conductance of 19 species in raised beds on the UMBC campus. Half of the beds contained urban “fill” soil and half of the beds contained topsoil. The stomatal conductance of seeded native versus spontaneous species was compared in fill soil and in topsoil. My preliminary results show that spontaneous species do not have significantly higher average stomatal conductance or significantly higher variability in stomatal conductance than seeded native species in either soil type, implying that water stress is not a major factor contributing to the decline in populations of native plants in urban areas. Once the differences in the environmental conditions of the plots are accounted for, I may find significant relationships between soil type and species origin. Another possible limitation of this study is the imprecise method through which leaves were selected for measurement.
Madeline Jaffe's Abstract: Dr. Eric Schott's Lab at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology
Analyzing the Biodiversity and Resilience of the Baltimore Harbor
2019- Ongoing
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor ecosystem has faced numerous sources of pollution since its creation, including nutrient and sewage runoff, urbanization, and litter. As a result, there has been increased interest in enhancing and conserving the ecosystem, which has seen a decrease in heavy industry in the last half-century. The goal of my research is to analyze data in order to begin to understand the complex relationships between biodiversity and environmental factors in the Inner Harbor. Biodiversity is measured at two sites in the Harbor, one being near a constructed floating wetland intended to recreate a healthy Chesapeake Bay habitat. Biodiversity is measured using submerged biodisks, which are small plastic surfaces that develop communities of invertebrates over time. These disks are filmed under microscopes to document what species are present and how their numbers change over time. I used the data from the disks to calculate monthly biodiversity levels at each site using a formula called the Shannon Index; I then compared these numbers to environmental data from the same year, specifically dissolved oxygen, as this is a well understood influencer of aquatic biodiversity. This led me to explore how each site reacts to and rebounds from low-oxygen levels that lead to drops in biomass and biodiversity. By calculating the rates of return of biodiversity after low-oxygen events, I found that biodiversity at the Experimental Site closest to the healthy wetland simulation had a faster rate of return from die-offs than that of the Reference Site further away, suggesting a more resilient ecosystem. This contributes to the understanding of a need for future projects related to improving the resilience of the Harbor ecosystem, and it reinforces the importance of oxygen for biodiversity.
Helen Schott’s Abstract: Christopher Swan’s lab in the geography and environmental systems department at UMBC
2018-2019
The purpose of my research is to investigate if water stress is a possible factor contributing to the decline in populations of native plant species and the increase of non-native species in urban areas. I wanted to know if native and non-native species differ in their responses to water stress, which can be quantified through stomatal conductance. If a plant is experiencing water stress, it will close its stomata to prevent the loss of water through them, resulting in lower stomatal conductance. I measured the stomatal conductance of 19 species in raised beds on the UMBC campus. Half of the beds contained urban “fill” soil and half of the beds contained topsoil. The stomatal conductance of seeded native versus spontaneous species was compared in fill soil and in topsoil. My preliminary results show that spontaneous species do not have significantly higher average stomatal conductance or significantly higher variability in stomatal conductance than seeded native species in either soil type, implying that water stress is not a major factor contributing to the decline in populations of native plants in urban areas. Once the differences in the environmental conditions of the plots are accounted for, I may find significant relationships between soil type and species origin. Another possible limitation of this study is the imprecise method through which leaves were selected for measurement.
Madeline Jaffe's Abstract: Dr. Eric Schott's Lab at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology
Analyzing the Biodiversity and Resilience of the Baltimore Harbor
2019- Ongoing
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor ecosystem has faced numerous sources of pollution since its creation, including nutrient and sewage runoff, urbanization, and litter. As a result, there has been increased interest in enhancing and conserving the ecosystem, which has seen a decrease in heavy industry in the last half-century. The goal of my research is to analyze data in order to begin to understand the complex relationships between biodiversity and environmental factors in the Inner Harbor. Biodiversity is measured at two sites in the Harbor, one being near a constructed floating wetland intended to recreate a healthy Chesapeake Bay habitat. Biodiversity is measured using submerged biodisks, which are small plastic surfaces that develop communities of invertebrates over time. These disks are filmed under microscopes to document what species are present and how their numbers change over time. I used the data from the disks to calculate monthly biodiversity levels at each site using a formula called the Shannon Index; I then compared these numbers to environmental data from the same year, specifically dissolved oxygen, as this is a well understood influencer of aquatic biodiversity. This led me to explore how each site reacts to and rebounds from low-oxygen levels that lead to drops in biomass and biodiversity. By calculating the rates of return of biodiversity after low-oxygen events, I found that biodiversity at the Experimental Site closest to the healthy wetland simulation had a faster rate of return from die-offs than that of the Reference Site further away, suggesting a more resilient ecosystem. This contributes to the understanding of a need for future projects related to improving the resilience of the Harbor ecosystem, and it reinforces the importance of oxygen for biodiversity.
Baltimore Beyond Plastic
Baltimore Beyond Plastic, BBP, is a youth-led advocacy organization based in Baltimore founded in 2016 by Poly students Claire Wayner and Mercedes Thompson. In the past 4 years, several Poly students have worked for the organization. One of the major accomplishments of the group since its founding has been the city-wide ban of styrofoam. All Baltimore City Public Schools now use compostable trays, thanks to the hard work of BBP. Poly students have served as interns for BBP since its creation and continue to do great things in Baltimore such as work on a plastic bag ban and also organize community awareness events such as the Arts and Action Extravanganza event on January 25, 2020.