Week 4 - Monday August 21st
Hi YELP Leaders and Parents!
What a great start to our week of YELP! It was great to meet the newest group of YELP leaders and we can't wait to see them learn about and tackle ocean issues throughout the week!
What did we do today?
- We started off our day with icebreakers and team bonding activities to get to know the youth leaders and have them understand what teamwork looks like in the YELP program!
- The YELPers were then set the challenge of completing a personal mind map reflection focused on our Oceans! Each leader was super engaged and came up with some fantastic ocean themes and key messages.
- Afterwards, the YELPers spent the rest of their morning getting to know the aquarium, from the building itself to the animals and conservation messages hidden throughout the galleries, by doing a scavenger hunt!
- After lunch, we got a chance to go and touch the rays! The Aquarium has both cownose stingrays and southern stingrays in the Rays Exhibit. Next, we had a behind-the-scenes experience where we got to help at a feeding session for the rays and we got a chance to see the five ray pups!
- To end our day, we visited some of the sea lions in our new exhibit Steller's Bay, and heard about our amazing research programs by an interpreter at the Sea Lion Program!
Questions to ask your YELPers
- What is one new thing you learned about our conservation work at the Vancouver Aquarium during your gallery exploration?
- What does it feel like to touch a stingray and what do the stingrays eat?
- What is a possible reason why Steller Sea Lion populations have declined? (hint: from the steller program)
Resources:
- Explore our Stellar Sea Lion Research Program - check out: https://www.vanaqua.org/act/research/steller-sea-lions
Thanks for a great day leaders! We look forward to the rest of the week!
