Virginia Creeper vine

Virginia Creeper vine

twining around a fence post,

five fingers reaching

Labor Day, a day to honor those who labor and a day of rest from labor. Tomorrow it's back to school for many children. Today they are riding their bikes, bare backs, bare feet, care free. It's still officially summer but the leaves have already begun to turn red and yellow and fall to the ground. This Virginia Creeper has been laboring for a long time to climb up a fence post. The creeper, with its five-finger leaves, is a prolific climber, reaching heights of 20 to 30 m in the wild. It climbs smooth surfaces using small forked tendrils tipped with small strongly adhesive pads. This particular wild vine, after reaching the top of the fence post, fanned out in all directions, seeking something else to latch onto, something higher to surmount. But what? The sky's the limit.

water and plastic

water and plastic --

students learn the principles

of fluid dynamics

The heat index is 102 degrees, way too hot for late spring. Creative teachers at MSAE in Fairfield, Iowa, take classroom outside, to a water slide set up on the hill near the school, where the students have great fun learning how fluids, smooth surfaces, slopes, mass, velocity, and gravity all work together.

afternoon rain shower

afternoon rain shower –

waiting under umbrellas

for school gate to open

Sitting at a table outside a restaurant in Aguas Calientes, across from a school, we watch as a sudden rain shower sends everyone on the street scurrying for cover. One little boy runs up to the blue school gate, hunched up, hugging the wall. He is soon joined by a group of boys and then a woman who seems to be a teacher. None of them have umbrellas. After awhile, the gate opens and lets them in. Then parents begin arriving, carrying umbrellas and holding the hands of young children. They wait a long time. Finally, the gate opens and the crowd disperses.