UTD Instructor Trainer Ben Bos with a
group of high school students.
From the schools’ perspectives we can offer them a way of teaching about subjects like Boyle’s
Law with some examples from the diving world, which keeps it interesting. Subjects like math
become compelling because now the kids can really see an application for the otherwise boring
math class. Give them a gas volume calculation or have then finding out rock bottom puts a smile
on a math teacher’s face.
As a diver you know that it takes a fair bit of discipline to become a good diver. This is also one
of the key points in teaching these 16-19 year old kids – if you loose their attention for a nanosecond you have to work hard to get them back again. To motivate and encourage them to have the
discipline to prepare for a class and pay attention during the class is a really fun way of teaching
yourself new teaching techniques. On our UTD instructor development courses we always talk
about the fact that the student learns 10 new things but the instructor learns 100. This is especially
the case in teaching these kids.
So for as far as theory goes we can offer the schools a nice supplement to their daily curriculum
and spice it up a bit with some out of the box teaching.
To give one example, one high school has created a whole new approach, they have made a
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