The Big Field Trip

The world has many religions. From Sikhism to Judaism, many different religions are practiced world wide. People follow religions because they explain creation, why we are here on earth and what happens when we die. Religions also give people hope, through prayer, and mark rites of passage, which are rituals that help people see themselves [...]

One of the most difficult things about traveling is learning different languages. It’s uncomfortable when I am sitting next to strangers on an airplane and I want to speak with them, but I don’t know if they speak the same language as I do. Sometimes I get nervous when I walk down the street and [...]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzip! Splash! Uh, oh, my turn. I walk to the edge of the cliff, then jump.
We had been going on a tour all day. We were somewhere outside of Lencois, Brazil. We had been to Devil’s Hole, a pool so deep that its water looked black. If you held the water in your hands, it [...]

Chili peppers and their cousins the sweet or bell peppers are almost everywhere. From Eastern China to Mexico, there are peppers. Peppers play an important role in many cuisines world-wide.
Chili peppers were being cultivated in Peru more than 6,000 years ago. From the coast birds brought the seeds inland. Chilis are not spicy to birds, slugs, snails, [...]

Since our video camera was stolen in Brazil, we only have pictures and audio so we made slideshows. Here they are from Peru, Brazil and Tunisia.

Tunisia slideshow from Jason Kirkman on Vimeo.

Our planet has lots of different biomes, the fresh water biome, marine biome, desert biome, tundra biome, forest biome and grassland biome. A biome is an area with similar climate and species. For instance, both the Sahara desert and the Gobi desert are part of the desert biome. They are different continents and some different [...]

Last night we got robbed. The robbers came into our house when Bella, Cruz, my dad, and I were here and stole money and all of our electronics including our computers and video camera. We still have three regular cameras. It may be some time until we get new computers so we may not get [...]

Brazil was “discovered” in 1500 by a Portuguese explorer named Pedro Alvares Cabral. The Brazilian coast has perfect climate for growing sugarcane. The native “Indians” of Brazil were not suitable for work in the sugarcane plantations because there were not many of them. They died from European diseases,   often refused to work and fought against [...]

               Butterflies are beautiful flying insects that suck nectar and pollinate flowers. Butterflies have proboscises which are straw-like tongues that they use for sipping nectar. Butterflies have three body parts, which are the head, the thorax (the chest), and the abdomen (the tail end). Butterflies have an exoskeleton, which is a skeleton in the outside [...]

From The Big Field Trip – Brazil, January/February, 2009

 
MANGROVE JOURNAL
Brackish water, mangroves all around. Mud under foot. Crabs scuttle away as I wade towards them. “Click.”  A picture taken.
Stilt-like roots rise out of water. Squish, squish, rise out of water. Hundreds of centimeter long crabs dart into their sand caves. “Click.” Another picture taken.
Light shines [...]