Showing posts with label Paris Capers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paris Capers. Show all posts
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Anish Mukhoti,
David Taylor,
Derika Savage,
Devon Fortune,
Fatima Givens,
Lance Guyton,
Paris Capers
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My summer as an intern with the Bits program has been a very exiting and eye opening experience. With my group, Bike Temple, I have learned a great deal about not only bikes, but the cyclist community as a whole. I've learned about the pro's and cons of riding a bike versus driving a car. I've learned the names or nearly all of the parts of a bike. I've also learned that there are tons of ways to customize a bike. At the beginning of the program, when we were counting bike racks, I felt as though it was going to be a long summer, but the six weeks have come and gone, and now I look back wondering " Where did the time go?". It was great getting paid for all the work we've done (for back to school supplies) but to be honest I would gladly have done it just for the experiences and to meet the people I've met. It's been a wild ride, but this looks like this is the end. Ride on, Temple. Ride on.
Hi again, my fellow commoners
It's Paris and, I know it's been a while, but I'm back on the blogging scene with a story to tell and pictures to share!
Not too long ago me and a few of the members of my group, Bike Temple, went out into the world on bikes! That's right, we actually saddled up and headed around campus on our own trusty aluminum steeds. After being pushed back a whole week and switching our portfolio training day we finally got to reap the rewards of our hard work: a brisk cycling trip around campus on a great day. Another of the mentors in the program, Zack, accompanied us on the trip and was nice enough to even lend us three bikes to use, talk about generous! Although the ride was extremely entertaining, it also had a malicious intention hidden within: We were learning the course an average student would take throughout the course of the day. There was only one element missing as we rolled through campus: people. The hundreds of people that are usually packed in the walkways and squeezed on the sidewalks were absent, but having been on campus during the school year I can imagine what it would be like.
So, after a half hour of pedaling the day was coming to a close and we headed back to USB to clock out and end the workday, but before we did we made sure to get a few pictures which I gladly share with you, the people.
Paris is back, again ^_^
Today we will be reporting some data that we had collected while we were out and about on campus. In a previous week we had went out and tallied the number of bikes compared to bike racks. We grouped the racks according to which building they were closest to. After a long day of counting we came up with a spreadsheet containing our data, which we turned into percentages. The data showed what buildings got bike traffic and which ones different. Our assignment for the day was to shed some light onto why some buildings got traffic and some didn't.
Of the thirteen locations we recorded along our path, the College of Engineering technically had the highest bike traffic, with a ridiculous 150%. How did we come up with 150%?, simple. There happened to be more bikes than there were spaces in the bike racks. When the open spaces were filled, people chained up their bikes to the rack any way they could. It definitely looked crowded. The actual highest bike count goes to Tyler Hall, which had a well rounded 100% usage. Every single slot was used up on each of Tyler's three full and two half racks. I figure that because the building was relatively new and fresh, people flocked to it. I think that's a pretty reasonable assumption, because when we were there the landscape was littered with college students on lunch and socializing.
After Tyler the numbers just get bleaker and bleaker. From Weiss Hall's 75% usage and Payley's 59% all the way down to Gladfelter, with just under 20%, and Beury Hall which crapped out at 0%. The numbers are all over the chart, but theres a simple explaination for all of them: Location. Depending on how close a building was to the "heart" of campus its rack usage either increased or decreased. Also, the placement of the bike racks made a difference. At some of the places the racks are nearly hidden, so nobody uses them.
I think awareness about the bike racks is a major issue, and we'll see what we can do to about it our future endeavours.
Today we will be reporting some data that we had collected while we were out and about on campus. In a previous week we had went out and tallied the number of bikes compared to bike racks. We grouped the racks according to which building they were closest to. After a long day of counting we came up with a spreadsheet containing our data, which we turned into percentages. The data showed what buildings got bike traffic and which ones different. Our assignment for the day was to shed some light onto why some buildings got traffic and some didn't.
Of the thirteen locations we recorded along our path, the College of Engineering technically had the highest bike traffic, with a ridiculous 150%. How did we come up with 150%?, simple. There happened to be more bikes than there were spaces in the bike racks. When the open spaces were filled, people chained up their bikes to the rack any way they could. It definitely looked crowded. The actual highest bike count goes to Tyler Hall, which had a well rounded 100% usage. Every single slot was used up on each of Tyler's three full and two half racks. I figure that because the building was relatively new and fresh, people flocked to it. I think that's a pretty reasonable assumption, because when we were there the landscape was littered with college students on lunch and socializing.
After Tyler the numbers just get bleaker and bleaker. From Weiss Hall's 75% usage and Payley's 59% all the way down to Gladfelter, with just under 20%, and Beury Hall which crapped out at 0%. The numbers are all over the chart, but theres a simple explaination for all of them: Location. Depending on how close a building was to the "heart" of campus its rack usage either increased or decreased. Also, the placement of the bike racks made a difference. At some of the places the racks are nearly hidden, so nobody uses them.
I think awareness about the bike racks is a major issue, and we'll see what we can do to about it our future endeavours.
Paris, once again.
Today was a very productive day for Bike Temple. Soon after the work day began we were hurried to a room down by the main office, and another group, by the name of Philly Green, interviewed us about all the things we have done so far. Philly Green is the group that we share our Portfolio Training sessions with. They asked us about the purpose behind our group, how we felt about the assignment, and even what we had learned about the topic so far. I did my best to stand out, as usual, and I think that as a group we made a good impression. After they had asked us all of their prepared questions and written down our answers we flipped the script on them and asked them some questions of our own! We basically asked variations of their questions, just to see if they were really on point with their assignment. We found out that they were blogging as a group instead of individual parts of a whole, like us, so instead of having five blog posts they had only one. Maybe they’ll take an idea from us and save themselves a bunch of trouble.
After we were interviewed, Bianca gave us a list of numbers. She said that we were to go outside and take note of the actual number of bikes on each of the bike racks, then record the location and number of spaces filled on the paper. We figured that it would be easier to mark off the building that the each rack was closest to, so with that in mind we headed out. We knocked the ball out of the park on this one, pretty much doing exactly what we needed to do. We were on point all day! The paper that Bianca had given us had fifty spaces, but we had marked off at least one hundred of the nearly five hundred designated bike locking spaces. Soon enough lunch time rolled around, and because we had stayed on task the entire day we were given an extra fifteen minutes for lunch! I think Bianca’s starting to ease up on us, little by little. After lunch we came over to Anderson hall and began today’s written and typed assignments. We are going to have a guest speaker tomorrow, so we each wrote five questions to ask him. We also had to write a page about the Bits programs for our original mentor, Anish, who is on a mini vacation right about now and last but not least we had to write a blog for today. So, this is Paris, signing off from Anderson.
Today was a very productive day for Bike Temple. Soon after the work day began we were hurried to a room down by the main office, and another group, by the name of Philly Green, interviewed us about all the things we have done so far. Philly Green is the group that we share our Portfolio Training sessions with. They asked us about the purpose behind our group, how we felt about the assignment, and even what we had learned about the topic so far. I did my best to stand out, as usual, and I think that as a group we made a good impression. After they had asked us all of their prepared questions and written down our answers we flipped the script on them and asked them some questions of our own! We basically asked variations of their questions, just to see if they were really on point with their assignment. We found out that they were blogging as a group instead of individual parts of a whole, like us, so instead of having five blog posts they had only one. Maybe they’ll take an idea from us and save themselves a bunch of trouble.
After we were interviewed, Bianca gave us a list of numbers. She said that we were to go outside and take note of the actual number of bikes on each of the bike racks, then record the location and number of spaces filled on the paper. We figured that it would be easier to mark off the building that the each rack was closest to, so with that in mind we headed out. We knocked the ball out of the park on this one, pretty much doing exactly what we needed to do. We were on point all day! The paper that Bianca had given us had fifty spaces, but we had marked off at least one hundred of the nearly five hundred designated bike locking spaces. Soon enough lunch time rolled around, and because we had stayed on task the entire day we were given an extra fifteen minutes for lunch! I think Bianca’s starting to ease up on us, little by little. After lunch we came over to Anderson hall and began today’s written and typed assignments. We are going to have a guest speaker tomorrow, so we each wrote five questions to ask him. We also had to write a page about the Bits programs for our original mentor, Anish, who is on a mini vacation right about now and last but not least we had to write a blog for today. So, this is Paris, signing off from Anderson.
Hi, Paris again.
Today my group and I started off the day by heading over to a classroom in Tuttleman. In that class we each created a poster to promote our assignment, Bike Temple. We were supposed to be creative with the visuals, then top it off with a description and a presentation that explained how it related to the overall project. After each of the interns presented, the others were asked to give feedback on how well the presentation was. We were asked to point out something good and bad that the presenter did, and how we thought they could improve their presentation. My presentation was of a super cool looking bike with the caption “There’s no such thing as a girl bike”. My caption addressed the issue that some people had with riding bikes: undue embarrassment. After we all had presented, Bianca told us that this exercise was to get us to work on our presentation skills. She reminded us that at the end of the six weeks of work, our group would have to present what we have done and explain our understanding of the topic to the entire program. I’m glad she did this, I had almost forgotten.
After we finished up with the presentations and made some last minute adjustments to our posters we left Tuttleman and went on our break. Following the break we headed over to the Tech Center. Bianca had reserved a breakout room for us. There was a little wait, but once the wait was over we went in and sat down to watch three videos Bianca had prepared for us. After the videos, we had to answer questions about what we had seen. The videos addressed the rising trend of bike ridership across America and around the globe, Who knew that the bike was so popular abroad? One of the videos focused on Portland, Oregon, where an amazing 6% of the population rides Bikes as their main mode of transportation. Although 6% does not sound like a lot, compare that to the national average of barely 2%.
Today my group and I started off the day by heading over to a classroom in Tuttleman. In that class we each created a poster to promote our assignment, Bike Temple. We were supposed to be creative with the visuals, then top it off with a description and a presentation that explained how it related to the overall project. After each of the interns presented, the others were asked to give feedback on how well the presentation was. We were asked to point out something good and bad that the presenter did, and how we thought they could improve their presentation. My presentation was of a super cool looking bike with the caption “There’s no such thing as a girl bike”. My caption addressed the issue that some people had with riding bikes: undue embarrassment. After we all had presented, Bianca told us that this exercise was to get us to work on our presentation skills. She reminded us that at the end of the six weeks of work, our group would have to present what we have done and explain our understanding of the topic to the entire program. I’m glad she did this, I had almost forgotten.
After we finished up with the presentations and made some last minute adjustments to our posters we left Tuttleman and went on our break. Following the break we headed over to the Tech Center. Bianca had reserved a breakout room for us. There was a little wait, but once the wait was over we went in and sat down to watch three videos Bianca had prepared for us. After the videos, we had to answer questions about what we had seen. The videos addressed the rising trend of bike ridership across America and around the globe, Who knew that the bike was so popular abroad? One of the videos focused on Portland, Oregon, where an amazing 6% of the population rides Bikes as their main mode of transportation. Although 6% does not sound like a lot, compare that to the national average of barely 2%.
Hi, my name is Paris and I am enrolled in a summer internship program called BITS. My group is called Bike Temple and there are six interns in the group. The goal for our group is to spread the word about bike ridership on and off campus and try to influence people to leave their cars at home, get on a bike and ride! We plan to do all sorts of things, for example, we will be asking people to complete a survey we created all about bikes. We are making nice progress towards our goal. So far we have taken to the streets and taken count of the nearly 500 total bike racks on campus (by hand no less). We have brainstormed numerous ideas about how to make the assignment much more exiting and interesting, and today we have created this blog- to record all of our actions, thoughts and ideas in a convenient, easy to use format. Today marks the first day of our blogging journey. So here, from Anderson Hall, I bid you farewell and hope you follow us.
