My oldest, Rachel, just graduated from St. Mary's College of Maryland as a bio major. Her senior thesis was based on 7 weeks of research carried out in the summers of '06 and '07 in Bocas del Toro, Panama.
She's received a bit of notice from the conservation community as her research documented parachuting behavior in the poison dart frog species Dendrobates pumilio (strawberry poison dart frogs) which had not previously been quantified.
HERE is a youtube of Rachel, roughly 16 meters up in a tree, apparently harassing a frog into jumping by humming at it.
Jeff Davis, who blogs for the globally supported amphibian conservation organization Amphibian Ark, posted THIS after seeing Rachel's research paper.
(I regret that after the cost of airfare, equipment, etc, that I didn't get her a better camera that could do video. The vids were shot with the pretty basic Dimage pocket camera that was actually the second camera of mine I donated to the cause over the course of the study.)
This year Rachel is working part time with the school administration on sustainability policy, and part time as an organic farmer. You can see from the Panama photos that she's comfortable with dirt.
