About – AquaTrax Learning

AquaTrax Learning is a free, bilingual curriculum-based resource for teachers that brings the movement of wild animals into classrooms across Canada. Using data collected by scientists from biotelemetry technology attached to wildlife, AquaTrax Learning provides teachers with teaching modules and multimedia to connect students to conservation issues.

Downloadable teaching modules with inter-provincial/territorial application are designed for Junior (Grades 4-6), Intermediate (Grades 7-10), and Senior (Grades 11-12) teaching divisions and include information on animal biology, ecology, and conservation. Animals featured in the AquaTrax Learning teaching modules include those of Indigenous cultural importance to strengthen heritage education.

Our Vision

Students across Canada inspired by scientific data and experiential learning that connect them to the underwater world and its research community.

Our Mission

Promote access to active researchers and real-world scientific data in classrooms throughout Canada to increase STEM career awareness.

The AquaTrax Learning Team

Portrait of AquaTrax team member Jill Brooks

Jill Brooks, MSc

Jill has over 10 years of experience tracking sharks and fish to look at the impacts that humans can have on their movements. She is passionate about outreach and teaches an undergraduate course in science communication at Carleton University.

Portrait of AquaTrax team member Jaqueline Chapman Brooks

Jacqueline Chapman, MSc

Jacqueline has over 10 years of teaching and outreach experience where she shares her lifetime love of animals and nature with people of all ages. Her PhD has taken her across Canada, learning from and working with indigenous communities from coast-to-coast-to-coast.

Portrait of AquaTrax team member Steven Cooke

Steven Cooke, PhD

Steven is a Professor of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Sciences at Carleton University. Regarded as a world leader in biotelemetry, Steven has tracked fish since 1997. His research spans the natural and social sciences, focusing on developing solutions to problems facing aquatic organisms.

Portrait of AquaTrax team member Lisa Donaldson

Lisa Donaldson, BSc

Lisa is a lab manager and research biologist in the Fish Ecology and Conservation Physiology Laboratory at Carleton University. She's been getting her hands wet and studying all things fishy since 2007.

Portrait of AquaTrax team member Vivian Nguyen

Vivian Nguyen, PhD

Vivian is a science policy fellow at Natural Resources Canada with over eight years of experience studying ways to improve the mobilization and communication of science to user groups in the context of conservation and natural resource management.

Portrait of AquaTrax team member Natalie Sopinka

Natalie Sopinka, PhD

Natalie is a communications specialist at Canadian Science Publishing with nine years of experience studying and communicating the behaviour of fishes in creative ways, from video and photography to poetry and sketching.

Portrait of AquaTrax team member Jessica Taylor

Jessica Taylor, MSc

Jessica is a research biologist and lab manager at Carleton University who specializes in evidence-based decision making for fisheries management. She’s been involved in conservation outreach and education for over five years.

Portrait of AquaTrax team member, Emily Verhock

Emily Verhoek, BSc, OCT, Bed

Emily is the Outreach & Teaching Coordinator for the Queen’s University Biological Station and runs the programs at Elbow Lake Environmental Education Centre. She has experience as a biologist and classroom teacher and tries to inspire all with an appreciation and love for nature.