Field Schools

Students really got into the Valentine’s Day spirit, making creative and imaginative gifts and cards for each other!  We wish everyone a   joyous day filled with love!        

Students went on a day trip to Central Island, a volcanic island in the middle of Lake Turkana.  After a fun and refreshing 1 hour boat ride students arrived at the island, which consists of several craters filled with water. The first lake visited is named Crocodile Lake which, you guessed it, houses a population [...]

Students learned the concept of superposition, where the oldest sediment or rock layers are on the bottom of an exposed outcrop. However, due to various forces, such as movement of the plates that make up the Earth’s crust, or changes in water bodies, the relative position of rock layers can change. Understanding geology is important [...]

The students have been learning more about the geology of the Turkana Basin.  Today they learned about how layers of sediment form (stratigraphy) and what these layers can tell us about the nature of past environments.   Sediments are particularly useful in telling us about the topography (profile) of landscapes and the presence of rivers, lakes or [...]

The second module - The Geology of the Turkana Basin- kicked off yesterday. Students first learned how to use the Brunton compass to map areas. Their first assignment was to map the 100 acre TBI compound. Students had to measure distances among structures such as the fence and buildings, and had to use the compass [...]

The first module of the Turkana Basin Institute of Ecology is just coming to and end. We spent a couple of days this week learning about and exploring the aquatic habitat of the Turkwel River next to TBI.   One of the amazing things was both how tough life can be in the [...]

Good Bugs and Bad Bugs One of the important topics that we have been exploring as part of the Ecology Module is the question of ‘ecosystem services’ and how biodiversity, basically wild species, contribute to human livelihoods.   TBI is working with the community to address various issues, and one of these is [...]

Goats vs. Grasshoppers The two main herbivores present around the Turkana Basin Institute are goats and grasshoppers. The goats are obvious as you travel around – there are small groups of them moving about or resting in the shade of trees during the day.     Grasshoppers are also common out here, though [...]