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Oct 1999 | Nov 1999 | Dec 1999 | Jan 2000 | Feb 2000
*Note: I wrote my last official Volunteer Journal log on February 17, 2000, but I continued volunteering at the Aquarium until April. On April 4th, I was offered a job as a naturalist, and I was thrilled to accept! To learn about my work experiences at the Aquarium, click on Naturalist Job Description.
Feb 17, 2000:
February 17th was my day off because SFU had a reading break, but I volunteered at the aquarium anyway. Today was my first day to have a new volunteer "shadow" me as I led a group through the intertidal marine biology program. I must be a veteran!I started at the Cnidarian table (instead of my usual Arthropods), and that must have thrown my timing off, because I ended the Molluscs talk pretty early! That's no problem in the wet lab though, I just let the kids have another look at the live animals in the tanks! The squid dissection went particularily well today, we got a squid with a large ink sac and I wrote on the students' worksheets with the squid's pen and ink (the pen is a clear, plastic-like structure that give the squid support as it swims).
Feb 16, 2000:
Wednesday, February 16th, was a very special volunteer opportunity. The aquarium hosted part of the BC Tourism Conference, and restaurants from all over Vancouver set up sample tables. I was supposed to be manning a touch table, but I was able to take ten minutes off to sample all the food I could. I stayed away from the pigs' foot tarts and headed to the dessert table. Mmm... bumbleberry crumble and chocolate cheesecake! The highlight of the evening was seeing the Ralph Shaw boardroom set up like Austin Powers' pad! They hired an actor to play Austin, blue velvet suit, cravat, glasses and all! The room had lava lamps, psychadelic flowers, strings of beads and a groovy atmosphere! I wonder what Bjossa thought of it all.Back at my table, I talked to the tourism delegates about sea cucumbers, sea stars, sea urchins, saltwater crocodiles and stick bugs. The last one was a bit of a surprise, I'd never been trained for stick bugs, someone just handed it to me and left! I had this delicate, interesting insect neatly picking a path up my arm and it startled quite a few visitors!
Feb 10, 2000:
This Thursday, I decided to do Gallery Gang in the morning before my intertidal marine biology program. I had a good time, but it was pretty confusing because there were school programs all around the aquarium! All the trolleys were gone and some of the props were being used. To add to the confusion, I went to talk about the octopus, but I couldn't find him! He was hiding somewhere in the huge exhibit and I didn't see him for the entire 30 minutes! It's kind of hard to talk about an octopus when you can't find it, so I decided to take some sea otter props out into the sunshine. Nyac (our 11 year old female sea otter) was sunning herself, floating on her back and half-sleeping. Sea otters have got to be the cutest animals at the aquarium and of course Nyac drew a crowd. I talked to visitors of all ages about how sea otters aren't really wet because their extremely thick fur keeps the water out. I was having a good time, but it was time for me to go inside.The Intertidal Marine Biology program went well even though it had been almost a month since I'd let a group. Each time I do the program I get more comfortable with the material and I know the points I want to get across at each station.
Feb 3, 2000:
Hmmm... it's been awhile since February 3rd, what can I remember about that day? I volunteered for Gallery Gang for two hours. If I had to guess I'd say I talked about sharks and the octopus, but I unfortunately I can't really remember. I'm sure I had a good time, whatever I was talking about!
Jan 27, 2000:
What an amazing day! I had been having a pretty blah week, but going to the aquarium today put me in the best mood! First, when I arrived, I was told that Arnold Schwartzenegger had just left the building. I was sorry to have missed seeing him, but it was exciting to know that he, his wife and kids, and their bodyguards had just been visiting the aquarium! He's been filming a movie up at SFU for the past few weeks, so I guess he just thought he'd do the tourist thing while he was in town!As for my volunteering, Andrea (the head naturalist) took me to our new golden crocodile exhibit to help me learn all sorts of cool crocodile facts. In December, the aquarium received two 3 year old male crocodiles from Thailand. They are eventually headed to a brand new aquarium being built in Las Vegas. They're relatively small now, but they can live for 70 years and reach lengths of 15+ feet! Saltwater crocodiles can eat whatever they want when they are mature and they've been known to attack humans. They're ambush predators, meaning that they lie underwater, totally still and camouflaged, waiting for their prey to walk by. In a split second, the croc lunges for some unsuspecting antelope, captures it in his huge jaws and drowns it. The crocodile has such strong stomach acid that it can digest horns and bones! With scintillating facts like this, plus a real crocodile skin for people to touch, the crocodile display was a hit!
After the crocs, I took out the shark touch table including: a bull shark jaw, a silky shark jaw, a blue shark jaw, a nurse shark jaw, a mermaid's purse (shark egg case), a porcupine pufferfish, a tail fin from a blacktip reef shark, and my Encyclopedia of Sharks. My first visitors made my day. They were three girls (ages 5-8) with their Mom and they were all really interested in sharks. They had a computer program about sharks at home, so they were pretty knowledgeable, but I still had a few new facts up my sleeve. They stayed for about 20 minutes, discussing every single prop I had on my table, looking at my book, and telling me everything they knew about sharks. What a great experience! I had lots more interested visitors in the next hour, then I headed off to the touch pools. People are always drawn to sea urchins and star fish, so I knew I'd have some fans. Again, I lucked out with some cool kids who were really on the ball. I loved the looks on their faces when I told them that star fish have two stomachs and that they exude one of them out their mouths to digest their food on the outside.
So, I know I've gone on and on, but it was an incredible day, and I wanted to get it all down. Is there some way I could manage to do this for a living?!
Jan 20, 2000:
The wetlab was full of volunteers on January 20th. We had 8 volunteers and only 16 students to teach! So, all the volunteers worked in groups of 2 and I shadowed Barry. The group was quite quiet, but everything went well, and I'm glad I just sat and listened. I learned some new tidbits and also felt confident that I've been getting most of the main points across when I lead the program. I can't forget the new addition to the program, two tiny (less than 1 cm across) jellyfish larvae, pulsing around in a beaker. They looked like perfect snowflakes when they unfurled their bodies; they haven't reached the smooth, circular medusa stage yet.
Jan 15, 2000:
I just can't get enough of the aquarium, so I volunteered on Saturday as well as Thursday this week. First I did two hours of gallery gang, and it sure is different on a Saturday! I had so many more interested visitors, especially when I was at the touch pool with two sea stars and a sea cucumber. Apparently, sea cucumber is quite a delicacy in Korea! Next, I was lucky enough to run into Lee-Ann, coordinator of the YBC program. I was just in time to volunteer with the Young Biologist's Club. Today we were spread out all over the aquarium, doing various odd jobs with the aquarists and trainers. I took a small group to work with a marine mammal trainer, the kids helped prepare food for the sea otters. Then, we got to see the sea turtles being weighed and measured, they sure are feisty! The young biologists also cleaned out the sea horse reserve tank (after they figured out how to get the suction going!). I'm so jealous of these kids, they're getting to do such amazing things at such a young age!
Jan 13, 2000:
I just had one of those days that makes you want to be a teacher! Today in the intertidal marine biology program, I had a group of five Gr. 11s, and they were the best! They were totally interested, excited about touching the live animals, and smart! They had already done their unit on invertebrates in school, so they had a basic understanding of the major terms, but there were a lot of interesting facts that they hadn't heard yet. I really enjoyed teaching a group with some background, I didn't feel as if I was telling them all these long scientific names that they would forget in two minutes. They knew about the water vascular system of echinoderms, but not that seastars have two stomachs. Their teacher was a young UBC student who had just finished her PDP a few years ago and she already had her own class. A day like today makes me want to take the PDP program and teach my own highschool science class!
Footnote: this was the first day we had a moon jellyfish in the lab!
Jan 6, 2000:
For my first aquarium adventure of the new millennium I taught the intertidal marine biology program to five grade 11 students. I was on a new day (Thursdays) so I met several new faces. We had plenty of volunteer docents, so two people shadowed and the other five led groups. Although I was feeling a bit rusty after my three week hiatus, I led a group and didn't have any major mishaps. I forgot to do the sea star/arm hair demo, and I called sea anemones "anenomes," but I did remember to talk about sea cucumbers spitting their guts out in the face of danger. I also used a new fact I'd learned from one of the many natural history books I received for Christmas! I let the kids know that certain sea anemones CAN swim away from their enemies, they actually detach from the rock and thrash away!After the program, Andy took some volunteers out to the galleries and showed us the brand new display of sea whips, pretty cool stuff!
Dec 11, 1999:
On Saturday, Dec. 11, I was introduced to the Young Biologists Club, a group of 10-13 year olds who are interested in biology. They meet at the aquarium once a month and do all sorts of cool stuff. Yesterday, we were making a time capsule to be opened in the year 2010. I was helping with videotaping and interviewing the kids about their future goals and predictions. The tape we made will be placed in the time capsule, to be opened when these kids are in university. I wish I'd done something like that ten years ago! YBC was a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll volunteer with that program again! The only glitch was that I forgot to return my key as I left, and I had to come back today (Dec. 12) to drop it off. Since I was already at the aquarium, I took in a shark dive and checked out the new cow fish! (they look like swimming slugs!) I've now reached 35 hours of volunteering and I'll be getting my super duper photo id in the new year! Merry Christmas everyone!
Dec 7, 1999:
Today I led the Spineless Wonders program for the first time and it was great! It's the same program as the Intertidal Marine Biology we do for the Grade 11 and 12s, but its with Grade 6 and 7s. They were so much livelier than the older kids! That meant that they were totally into touching the animals, but it also meant that they weren't paying attention, they were off in all directions and they were totally hyper! They got very excited when I explained the sex life of barnacles. So, all in all, it was very enjoyable. I didn't stay to do gallery gang cause I had two finals to study for, what fun!This past week I've also had a couple Christmas parties for aquarium volunteers. On Dec. 2, Dad joined me at the big party in the Pacific Canada Pavillion. Highlights were: all the great food, Dad winning a door prize, trying to find our partners for "the male beluga" and "Whitewings", touring the aquarium and checking out the brand new moon jelly display. My second party was on a smaller scale, it was on Dec. 7th for all the Wet Lab and Staying Alive volunteers. I took a few trips to the dessert table and chit chatted with fellow volunteers.
Nov 30, 1999:
Yet again, I have left this page too long and I have four aquarium events to update for my loving public. Let's go back to Saturday, Nov. 20th. On that sunny day I woke up early to head out to Fraser River Park to do some fish sampling and bird surveying with River Works. Three brave souls (not including me) donned hip waders and ventured into the Fraser River to cast our seine net. The first try was fruitless, but the undaunted volunteers tried several more times until we had a grand total of ten little fish to identify. The coolest fish were the starry flounders, those flat fish with both eyes on the top of their heads. We also found some sticklebacks and a tiny salmon.The bird survey was cold and we spent most of our hour jumping up and down, trying to warm up. The remainder of the time we were recording seagull sightings ("Mark down two more gulls"). A nice gentleman did come by and help us identify 50 starlings that were taking over a tree, that species has spread out over most of North America in less than 100 years! I'm really looking forward to bird watching in the spring when there are actually birds to watch!
On the night of the 20th, I went to the Gallery Gang pizza party, I'm not one to pass up a chance to get free pizza! It was my kind of party, free chips and pizza, then pictionary! We played some fun aquarium trivia games and my team totally kicked butt. Probably cause we had the most paid staff members on our team, but who's counting?
We now move to Nov. 23rd. I finished my tutorial quiz in plant physiology and happily drove off to the aquarium to do four hours of gallery gang. Frankly, I can't remember too much about that day, even though it was only a week ago, cause my mind was filled with the Latin names of plants all that week. I think I talked about whales, octopuses and sharks. Ah, now it's coming back to me. I showed off the sperm whale jaw and the baleen and told people about the two different groups of whales (toothed whales and baleen whales). I got to explain how whales filter feed using baleen (which is made out of the same stuff as our fingernails). It's amazing to think that the blue whale, the largest animal in the world, gets that big just by eating tiny planktonic organisms.
Just when I thought I was updated, I still have to write about today! On Nov.30 (the day I reached 30 hours of active volunteering!) I led Intertidal Marine Biology for the 3rd time. It's getting better, but I still have some timing problems to sort out. We had a good group and there were only 11 kids, so I only had four students. They were answering questions (a big bonus!) and having fun touching the animals and overall I think they had a good time. I'm proud to say that I timed the seastar demo perfectly and no one shouted in pain! I did almost lose control of a frisky Dungeness crab (they sure are strong!), but I managed to put it back into its bowl before it jumped on any of the kids.
At 3:00 I went off to do gallery gang with the shark touchtable. I had some interested guests and a couple of really cute 6 year old girls who were really on the ball. I didn't have as much luck with the whale touchtable. After talking to some people as I was going down the elevator, I didn't have another customer. The aquarium usually quiets down around 4:30, so I spent my time watching the killer whale training session from the underwater viewing gallery. It's so awesome to watch Whitewings the dolphin gear up for one of her leaps, then disappear above the water. And she's a senior citizen, by dolphin standards!
Nov 18, 1999:
Wow, it's been way too long since I've updated this! On November 9th, I did four hours of gallery gang and it was a raving success! First, I spent half an hour asking the naturalists questions that I had been asked on previous days. I learned a lot about sharks and went out into the tropical gallery to impress and educate the public. I also took out the sea otter props, but I didn't get much of a crowd cause it was a rainy day and the display is outside. The killer whale props were more popular, and I had a long discussion about whales with an interested gentleman and his two kids. The kids were impressed by the beluga flipper bones we have cause they almost look like a human hand. One little girl stretched her hand out over the whale bones, trying to stretch her hand to fit the flipper. Another kid thought that the bones were a starfish!On Saturday, I took a trip out to Richmond to help out with River Works for the first time. River Works is a community stewardship program at the aquarium that restores habitats along the Fraser River and monitors biodiversity. On this rainy Saturday afternoon, we went out to London's Landing with 18 highschool leadership students. Despite the weather, we were able to do a bird survey (results: not many birds like BC in the November rain) and test the water quality.
The day before my big Plant Ecology report was due, I went out to the aquarium to a career night, and heard five staff members talk about what they do and how they got their jobs. It was pretty cool, and the slides were great, but I didn't want the jobs those guys had, I'm more interested in education. Although, training the whales would be pretty awesome!
Then, for the fourth time in a week, I went to the aquarium and led a wet lab program, completely solo! It went alright, except for the jellyfish station, where I finished my talk and still had 5 minutes left. Kinda awkward, but I got through it by showing the kids pictures of what it looks like when a box jelly stings you. And, I can't leave out the Echinoderm station where I really messed up the seastar demo. Seastars have tiny pinchers on the top of their bodies and I flipped one over and put it on a student's arm, so the seastar would grab on to her arm hair. Unfortunately, I left it on a little too long, and when I tried to lift it off, it was really stuck on there. I had to rip of off this poor girl, but she said it wasn't too painful, just surprising. Yikes! It's pretty scary doing an eighty minute talk, so I was happy to go out into the galleries and talk to people for about 5-10 minutes at a time. It was a pretty quiet day, but I did get one awesome six year old who knew a lot about sharks. I also brought out two seastars and an urchin to the touch pool and a few brave souls actually touched them.
On Tuesday I also bought an aquarium membership so that Dean and I can visit the aquarium for free any time we want to. I can't wait to take him and show him all around!
Nov 2, 1999:
I did it! I taught the whole wet lab program to my first group of kids! All five stations, one hour and twenty minutes of teaching! At first I hadn't planned to do the whole thing today, since I wasn't feeling quite confident enough, but they needed me. I got to the lab, fully ready to shadow one more time, and I was told that another volunteer wasn't feeling well and she needed me to do most of the talking! So, I jumped in there, tried my best, and actually made it through!After that, it was a relief to go out into the galleries and try to explain sharks to the public! It was a lot of fun and so many people were interested in touching sharks' teeth or learning about the sharks we have at the aquarium. I had a busy prop table, until I traded it in for the octopus table at 4:30. The crowd had died down and I hardly had any customers until right at the end when some very interested kids came and told me all they knew about octopii.
Oct 26, 1999:
On my first full day of volunteering, I worked in the Wet Lab for two hours and then I went out into the galleries for two hours. In the wet lab, each volunteer takes a group of about 5 highschool kids around to five stations, spending 15 minutes at each one. After I had shadowed John (an experienced volunteer) through four stations, he suggested that I teach the last station! So, with his help, I told those kids all I know about Cnidarians (jellyfish and anemones). Gotta love being put on the spot like that!After the wet lab, I brought some sea stars out to the touch pools and shared them with visitors to the aquarium. I was amazed by how many international visitors there were, they were from Italy, Germany, Korea, etc. I got my picture taken with one tourist who was REALLY excited to be holding a sea star. It's challenging trying to teach when your students don't understand english, but I got by with miming and one guy's pocket translator!
After an hour with my hands in cold salt water, I put the sea stars back and went outside with my sea otter props table. It was quite nippy out there, and I wasn't getting many customers (they were all watching the killer whale show) but it was fun watching Nyac, a ten year old female sea otter playing around in her habitat. At 5pm they fed Nyac a bucket full of clams, was she ever a hungry sea otter! After she'd had her meal, it was time for me to pack up, all in all, a fun day at the aquarium!
Oct 23, 1999:
This morning I looked into the eye of a killer whale and she looked right back at me!
I was down in the underwater viewing gallery and Bjossa saw me and came right up the glass to
check me out. I also saw Whitewings, the dolphin, playing with a leaf that had fallen into her pool, blowing it out of her mouth and then catching it again and again.
I was at the aquarium for my gallery gang training and I learned all sorts of cool stuff about sea otters, killer whales, sharks and octopii. On Tuesday, I get to try out my new facts on the public when I got out into the galleries with a table full of props.
Oct 19, 1999:
Today I finally got to deal with the public for the first time since I've started training at the Aquarium! Four volunteers (plus me!) took fourteen Grade 11 biology students around the wet lab, teaching them about Molluscs, Arthropods, Cnidarians and Echinoderms. I know most of the material from my invertebrates course, but I just have to work up the confidence to take a group of 3-6 highschool kids around the lab for an hour and 15 minutes. I'd love to tell you more, but I guess I'd better go study for my midterm tomorrow morning!
Oct 18, 1999:
Since September, 1999, I have been training to be a volunteer at the Vancouver Aquarium and so far I'm having a great time! I've learned about marine mammals, invertebrates, the amazon, the arctic and so much more! My 21 hour training program is finally over and tomorrow I go for my first actual volunteer program, teaching highschool students about sea urchins, moon snails, squid, sea stars, sea anemones, etc. We have live creatures the kids can handle so they have a hands-on experience. I'm just a little leery of handling the Giant Pacific Octopus we've got in the lab, but sea urchins should be ok!
