Our amazing Africa experience has come to an end - time rushed by at an astonishing speed! We did have a fantastic last day though: a closing ceremony with Drs Richard and Meave Leakey. After an inspiring speech by Richard Leakey, students received a beautiful TBI Field School certificate. What a great last day! The [...]
With all their new knowledge about our ancestors and the tools they used, students got to make their own stone tools! Knapping -manipulating stone to create a tool - is not as easy as it sounds. Its a real art because you need the right stones, the right force, and need to know where and [...]
Yesterday students went to a site rich in pottery shards, ostrich egg shells, stone tools and beads. Even though is was hot, the numerous artifacts that were easily spotted on the sandy surface, made for an exciting afternoon. The site was characterized by large silvery sand dunes and a beautiful vista of Lake Turkana. The exact age [...]
Students continued to learn more about stone tools – what they look like, their purpose, and how they were made. In the early stages, starting maybe about 3 million years ago, humans made tools by breaking up stones. The sharp edges flakes were used as knives, whereas others might have been used to crush or [...]
Archaeology, our fifth and final module, started Monday. Students learned a lot about the basics: Archaeology is the study of artifacts and buildings that people have left behind. In Turkana, there are mostly stone tools that range in age from 3 million years to 50,000 years or less. Students learned about stone tools, [...]
Local students went back to visit the Lorengelup primary school where they planted trees a few weeks ago. They had since erected some barriers around these little trees to protect them from the many goats in the area. Associated with the school is a small brand new maternity clinic. To provide power for lights, cooking [...]
Students learned in detail about how decaying organic plant material gets preserved over time (taphonomy). For example, plants can get preserved under volcanic ash, mud slides, or on lake and river bottoms. In all cases, fine sediment or ash completely covers the plant material. To illustrate taphonomy, students went to the river to look at [...]
This week, students will be learning al about the differences among living plants and their adaptations. Did you know that there are many more plants with toothed leaves in colder climates and that most leaves of plants in warm and wet climates have smooth edges? There is a higher rate of photosynthesis in the spiky [...]