Lupines have quite complex flowers.

The honey bees seem to like them, though.

And so do the carpenter bees.

Have you stopped to smell the flowers lately?

Jane Goodall is an extremely interesting scientist to study, because she came to science by a route that was not at all traditional.

Jane Goodall was born in London, England in 1934, which was shortly before the start of World War II. During the war she went to the countryside to stay with her grandmother. Her father went to fight in the war. After the war, her mother and father got a divorce and she stayed in the country where she learned about nature and studied animals. She also read books about far away Africa and dreamed of one day being able to visit.

Once Jane had finished school, she moved back to London and trained to become a secretary. When she had the opportunity to make a trip to Africa, she remembered her early aspirations and jumped at it. She like Africa so much, she got a job as a typist in the city of Nairobi.

By luck Dr, Louis Leakey, the famous anthropologist, and his wife Mary were also in Nairobi at the time. Jane went to meet him, and made a favorable impression. Before long, Jane Goodall was traveling with the Leakeys looking for fossils.

Louis Leakey had the idea that someone should study chimpanzees in the wild, which had never been done before. He thought Jane should give it a try. It turns out, although she had no degree and no formal training in how to study animal behavior, Jane Goodall was a natural. She didn’t mind the danger and difficult conditions, and she was soon making remarkable observations.

Eventually she did go back to school to obtain her doctoral degree at Cambridge University. Now she is a world-renowned scientist and leading expert on chimpanzee behavior. This shows what a sense of adventure, willingness to work hard, and a little good timing can bring you.

Dr. Jane Goodall is also an outspoken conservationist. She started Root and Shoots, an organization that encourages people, particularly young people, to help animals and the environment.

I have reviews of related children’s books at Wrapped In Foil today.

And if you are interested in chimp behavior as it relates to ants, try this post at Wild About Ants.

1. Life Cycles

Your children can use a camera to record all sort of life cycles. We’ve done silkworms, queen butterflies, frogs, etc. How about capturing a scene as it changes from week to week, or the growth of a flower?

2. Weather

Our local newspaper has added a feature where they print local weather photographs taken by amateurs in the area. I personally love to take photos of clouds. Your children will have many imaginative ways to record the weather, I bet.

3. Identification

Challenge your children to record 20 different kinds of trees with their camera. Or 50 different kinds of plants. Basically you can make collections useful for identification, just with photographs instead of actual specimens.

That’s how I’m trying to learn local wildflowers.

4. Record your child’s own growth by having them take photos of themselves in the same place on a monthly basis. (Taking a self-portrait requires a good working knowledge of a camera.)

5. Learn how a camera works.

How did the first cameras work? What does focal length mean? Yes Magazine has an article about How a Camera Works.

6. Actually build a digital camera.

Students Can Build Digital Camera (This is a news website with ads).

Absolutely awesome websites for many, many more ideas:

Using Digital Photography in the Science Classroom

Photography for Kids at A to Z

Homeschool Photography for Kids

If you want even more information, try one of these photography books:

See the financial disclosure page for information about my affiliation with Amazon.

Crane flies look like huge mosquitoes, but they are actually fragile giants. For more information and a peek at the larvae, check this previous post.

Any ideas what kinds of seeds these might be?

Nasturtium seeds (Genus Tropaeolum)!

These colorful plants were originally from South America, but are now grown worldwide.

Some people use nasturtium flowers in salads (make sure to use organically-grown). They have a spicy flavor.

When looking up information on nasturtiums, I found some websites with recipes for pickling the seeds. Does anyone know if this is real?

This is a video of an interview with Dr. Letisha McLaughlin, an astronomer at NC State. She talks about how she became an astronomer and how she was inspired when her mother got her a telescope.

I was also able to find this video tribute to Women Astronomers in History: Telescope Women in History.

Please Note: One of the images in this video is a star map overlaid with a drawing of a woman with one bare breast, which some people may find offensive. Please preview this video for suitability for your children.

Finally, here is a video about Women in Astronomy from NASA, which begins with a recent history of the field.

Last week I showed you the larva of an Arizona species of flower fly (Syrphidae). Today I found two adults feeding on desert marigold and brittlebush.

Everything is blooming right now.

Hint:  These seeds are about the size of a large pea.

What do you think they are?

Edit:  The answer is now posted.