TEACHERS GO BACK TO CLASS ON SATURDAYS AT THE AQUARIUM 

Vancouver, BC: This fall, teachers are spending their Saturdays learning about science at the Aquarium in a course called Life Science Beyond the Textbook. This course is provided through UBC’s Faculty of Education and Engaging Science, a joint venture between the Vancouver Aquarium, Science World and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre that has teachers studying life, physical and earth and space science.

This week, teachers dispersed throughout the Vancouver Aquarium’s galleries for their weekly animal observations, which are meant to show teachers the power of observation skills and how those skills can be readily transferred to the classroom and to life. They also aim to encourage a connectedness to the animals that can lead to a desire to conserve marine life.

Saturday’s activities are part of a six-week, practical, hands-on experience that assists teachers in making life science more relevant and exciting for students from kindergarten to grade seven.

Using resources materials from the Engaging Science program, the facilities within the Vancouver Aquarium as well as the natural surroundings of marine ecosystems in the Burrard Inlet, educators develop and enhance their teaching of life science. The course focuses on a variety of instructional styles, including a combination of field experience and hands-on classroom activities, to help teachers immerse their students in experiential and discovery science learning. 

Visit www.engagingscience.org for more details about the program.

For further information, please contact:

Brenda Jones

Manager, Public Relations                                                  

publicrelations@vanaqua.org