Recent News
Being thrown in at deep end suits aquaristMonday, February 08, 2016
A young Bermudian aquarist is making waves in some dangerous waters at the Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada.
BERNEWS: “Most Fascinating Person” Choy Aming
Friday, January 22, 2016
Bernews has launched their "10 Most Fascinating People of Bermuda 2015" series, and our very own Choy Aming was the first featured video.
Residents invited to hurricanes talk
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Bermuda Weather Service director Kimberley Zuill will present a free lecture on hurricanes at the Bermuda Zoological Society next Thursday.
Video: “Most Fascinating Person” Choy Aming
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
The “10 Most Fascinating People of Bermuda 2015″ series begins this evening with the first video release featuring Choy Aming.
Work to begin on new aquarium entrance
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Construction work on a new entrance area to the aquarium is expected to get under way this week.
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Latest News
All the latest updates and news from the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo, one of Bermuda's leading visitor attractions!
By Sara Westhead
While it would seem that after so many years of running Aqua Camp, it would be a walk in the park for those involved, it actually requires a great deal of time and planning to get ready for it each year. This includes ensuring that there are enough people involved to make sure it runs safely, as well as being fun and educational for each child that attends.
In fact, there are at least three full-time staff members for every age group, as well as our camp director and an interpreter/coordinator’s assistant. That means, when there are six different camps running at the same time, we need 20 full-time staff to make sure that everything runs smoothly, not including the numerous part-time staff that are employed as swim assistants to make sure that the children are safe in the water.
“We have a lead teacher for each camp age group and two assistants,” explained BZS Education Officer, Dr. Jamie Bacon, who also serves as Aqua Camp Director. “The teacher is either a qualified educator or an exceptional naturalist, and is the one who teaches the academic portion of the camp, while the assistants are extremely important for assisting with swimming, field trips, crafts and ushering campers wherever they need to go. The interpreter will organize animal encounters and give presentations on the animals to the camp groups – we try to have each camp have at least two animal encounters each week.”
Students enjoying swimming with their camp teacher.
Photo by C. Anderson
Although Aqua Camp is designed as an academic natural history camp, fun and safety are very important.
“We try to have a very creative curriculum for each camp age group, and that requires supervision along with a caring staff who are great at ensuring the campers are engaged and having fun. But we are also very conscious about safety, so we make sure to have adequate staff to keep the children safe no matter what the activity,” Dr. Bacon added.
All staff, whether full-time or part-time, undergo an orientation, which prepares them for the summer, outlining what is expected of them, camp rules, as well as camp crafts, as appropriate. Over the last few years, the lifeguards have also given a water safety lecture as well. All staff are required to have CPR and First Aid certification.
“It is important because the staff needs to know what is expected of them and to be reminded of how important water safety is. Also, I do try to pair any new assistants with a seasoned assistant, so they have guidance while the camps are running. Many of the assistants, as well as teachers, work for more than one year, which greatly helps maintain the continuity and excellence of our camps.”