Trip to Ol Pejeta Conservancy!
On Thursday, the students traveled to Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the world's largest black rhino sanctuary and home to three of the worlds last remaining northern white [...]
Ecology Week 1: Vegetation and Herbivory at Mpala
On Monday and Tuesday, we had the opportunity to learn from Mpala researcher Kimani Ndung'u who specializes in vegetation studies and is currently investigating the [...]
Fall 2016 Origins Field School Begins!
Welcome to the Turkana Basin Institute Field School blog. We will post weekly updates of students’ adventures and will also discuss what we are all [...]
TBI hosts thirteenth HEW: Rethinking Tool-making
The Turkana Basin Institute will host the thirteenth workshop of the Stony Brook/TBI Human Evolution Workshop series at its Turkwel campus from August 2 [...]
Meave Leakey awarded National Geographic’s Hubbard Medal
Meave Leakey, Director of Field Research at TBI and research professor at Stony Brook University’s Department of Anthropology, received the 2016 Hubbard Medal, named for the [...]
Congratulations to the Spring 2016 TBI Field School Graduates
Finally we bring the Spring 2016 TBI Field School to a close. The students have learned and accomplished so much during these 10 weeks. [...]
A site tour around Nariokotome, the archaeology of the Holocene, and a bit of digging in the dirt
The Early Pleistocene archaeological sites on the west side of Late Turkana are some of the richest areas for early hominin behavioral research in [...]
Making, using, and understanding stone tools
We switched our focus in the Archaeology module back to the Stone Age, starting with some hands-on learning about ancient stone tool technology. Understanding [...]
A visit from Richard and Meave Leakey and Kenyan cultural heritage
Profs. Richard and Meave Leakey stopped by TBI Turkwel for a visit with the field school students in between the end of the Paleoanthropology [...]
Human evolution: from elusive origins to human diversity in the present
We made it across to the west side of Lake Turkana on March 6th. Having learned about the ecology, paleontology and geology of the [...]
Overnight trip to Koobi Fora
Nearing the end of the Geology module, we all set out for an overnight trip to the famous Koobi Fora camp area. The Koobi Fora [...]
The Karari ridge, mapping, and stratigraphic sections
Part of learning about the geology of the Turkana basin is to visit and examine rock exposures related to archaeological and fossil sites and [...]
Shaping the Turkana Basin: river and lake systems
It might seem impossible, but one of the most important forces of nature changing the landscape in the Turkana Basin is water. The Turkana [...]
Seeing the lay of the land and getting our bearings
So far in the field school we have learned all about the modern local environment and the history of life in the areas surrounding [...]
Paleontology week 2: methods, methods, methods!
Week two of the Paleontology module was packed with field methods, a special visitor, and lots of work on student projects. We headed back [...]
Paleontology: Learning about fossils, anatomy and Earth’s history
We know that the Earth is between 4-5 billion years old. Its vast life history recorded in the ground. Paleontologists use evidence of past life [...]
Ecology at Ileret: semi-desert vegetation, pastoralism and freshwater ecology
We safely arrived at Ileret, excited to start the second half of the ecology module (don't worry, the rest of the students made [...]
The Great Grevy’s Rally
On January 30th and 31st the TBI field school students were able to take part in a historically important effort across Kenya. The Great [...]
Ecology week 1: The carnivores of Mpala
After learning about the primary producers (vegetation) and their primary consumers (herbivores), we moved on to discuss those animals higher up the food chain. [...]
Ecology Week 1: Vegetation ecology at Mpala
We are experiencing an El Niño event all over the globe, seeing weather patterns that are drastically different from our seasonal norms. The Laikipia [...]