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, 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 intros and we all made a community contract, which sets out the expectations we all have for each other!
• The YELPers were then set the challenge of completing a personal mind map focused on our Oceans! Each leader came up with some fantastic ocean themes and key messages.
• We then went into the aquarium to meet some of the animals such as the young sea lion Bella Bella.
• Then we started working on our Crash Course projects where we will get the chance to educate the public on important ocean topics.
• Our next activity were some fun icebreaker games including group juggle and the human knot!
• 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!
• After lunch we played a great teamwork game called the Incredible Machine where the YELPers all got to learn to rely on each other for success.
• To end our day, we looked at some amazing animal props and played some more great games.

Questions to ask your YELPers

1. What is your crash course project going to be about?
2. What is one new thing you learned about our conservation work at the Vancouver Aquarium during your gallery exploration?

Resources:

• Read some Ocean Wise Stories to be inspired and learn about storytelling as a tool to connect to our oceans: https://ocean.org/stories/
• Watch videos from our own Ocean Wise Youtube channel to learn more about marine biology and good examples for your film projects: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0hLWXESQRctgaVPT-8N7Rw
• Watch Crash Course: Ecology to learn more about ecology and see some sample videos for our film projects: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNdTKZkV_GiIYXpV9w4WxbX
• Here are some interesting sharks after our shark props talk today: https://www.earthrangers.com/wildwire/top-10/top-ten-unusual-sharks/

Thanks for a great day leaders! We look forward to the rest of the week!