Onondaga Lake Contamination: Questions

1. Our project aims to spread awareness about Onondaga Lake pollution. We are planning on handing out water bottles with self-made labels that list the major contaminants in the lake.
2. Our project will take the form of public awareness as we will attempt to handout the bottles ourselves. We will be interested in how the public will react to our project.
3. We want to work with Onondaga Lake because the pollution has been a problem for so many years and although many have made efforts to improve its condition, bringing more awareness to the issue can only help. We hope that this project will inspire others to support the cause and restore the lake’s beauty.
4. Onondaga Lake was once a popular tourist attraction but since many nearby companies began disposing of waste into the site, the water quickly became contaminated. Since nothing was done to eliminate the waste immediately, the pollution only accumulated. Now, Onondaga Lake cannot be used for recreational purposes because it is too contaminated.
5. This site is appropriate for the project because we wish to spread awareness about the lake and about pollution in general. Onondaga Lake is a perfect example of this.
6. This project is more of an intervention because we hope to directly involve the public and use shock as part of successfully acquiring awareness.
7. We might have to get permission to handout water bottles around campus or in other areas but we aren’t directly using the Onondaga Lake site so we won’t need permission for that.
8. We will use Armory Square because it is densly populated and hopefully, many people will see our message.
9. Damilia Ayo’s project inspired ours because she used the public to create shock. Also, she actually conducted her experiment. On the other hand, we don’t want to confuse our audience and thus, our message will be clear and direct.
10. Our goal is to bring awareness to the Onondaga Lake area by showing people the amounts of contaminants in the water. By doing this, hopefully we will be improving the condition of the lake in the long run.
11. The number or water bottles given out.
12. Our target audience is primarily residents of Syracuse because they will be more likely to care about the future of the lake. Since they live in this area, they will probably be more willing to support the pollution cleanup. But we will also try to target others who are willing to help or listen to our message. Maybe we can encourage people all over the world to stop polluting the environment.
13. We hope that people will take our water bottles and read the labels to ultimately understand our message. We hope that they will interact with the cleanup of Onondaga Lake.

Group Project: Onondaga Lake

Chemicals in Onondaga Lake

Contaminant Names/Discharge in pounds per year:

Manganese - 128

Nickel - 251

Chromium - 194

Cobalt - 74

Ammonia - 2,562

Lead - 11

75,000 kg of mercury in lake over 1946-1970 interval

phosphorus 60%
nitrogen 90%
(http://upstatefreshwater.org/html/onondaga_lake.html)

"Funk Lessons"

Thesis: Although some may question Piper's technique,he was certainly successful in enlightening and creating dialogue between races through the use of funk music.

Piper's use of funk lessons enabled individuals to confront racial issues and accept cultural differences.

Topic Sentences:

Between the years of 1982 and 1984, Adrian Piper experimented with dialogic art by teaching white participants about black funk music.

By using this form of medium, Piper was able to discretely and gradually introduce racial topics of discussion.

Instead of lecturing to white participants, the funk lessions encouraged discussion and individual appreciation of the music cultural.

Although Piper had good intentions, the funk lessions embarrassed and offended middle class and college-educated blacks.

Today, the same experiement might not conjure up the same response as hip hop music is a more acceptable part of white culture.

Piper's funk lessons sought to discretly introduce whites to the black culture, therefore, resulting in more positive results.