Featured Image Credit: Vancouver Aquarium Aquablog
By Lindsay Edgar
Next year, Canadians are in for a special treat in celebration of their nation’s 150th anniversary! Ocean conservation has gone mobile, thanks to the Vancouver Aquarium. Now students across the country can learn all about the coastal environments that surround them without traveling a long distance. The aquarium’s programs and some aquatic species will be packed into the amazing AquaVan with a special goal in mind: to inspire children and communities to be stewards of conservation.
What is the AquaVan? It’s a 10 meter truck that is specially designed to safely hold live aquatic species while en route to its teaching destinations. In transit, the truck is equipped with a water filtration system that keeps the marine animals healthy. Amazing.
By incorporating hands-on activities into its programs, the AquaVan is quite literally the superhero of science. Children from kindergarten through 7th grade will have the opportunity to discover how animals survive in their aquatic environments. Through observation, discussion, and touching the live animals, the students are bound to be struck by fascination. Programs for older students (8th through 12th grade) are slightly more in-depth. They will take a look at the intricate nature of marine biology and will have the opportunity to take part in a squid dissection!
The AquaVan isn’t just coming to a school near you; it has the ability to visit communities too. (It is mobile after all!) Bringing the programs to the public is important because otherwise they might not see the coastal areas for themselves.
And if you want to travel with the team, there are internships up for grabs! Environmental educators in the van are energetic and passionate about preservation of their local environment. In a time when ocean conservation needs outreach, the AquaVan is making waves.