The Battlefords Scuba community has had a busy few months introducing high school students from north-western and west-central Saskatchewan to the sport of scuba diving.
The program has spanned the time frame beginning back in March of this year and will wrap up by the end of December.
Bringing groups no larger than 20 students, physical education teachers have used the program to extend the schools鈥� regular physical education offering.
Club president Dennis McCullough says scuba is an excellent example of a multi-faceted approach to education.
鈥淪tudents are engaged in a physical education activity that they may decide to pursue for the rest of their lives, but at the same time they are in a laboratory that demonstrates to them the laws of physics, the principles of health education and several facets of the biological sciences,鈥� said McCullough.
The PADI Discover Scuba Diving program is designed to introduce people to scuba diving in a safe and inexpensive manner.聽 It encompasses a two-hour classroom session followed by a two-hour pool session.
The classroom portion deals with the physics behind diving, the environment in which people dive, the health aspects of diving and the equipment used in diving.
In the pool the students learn to breathe underwater and to handle the equipment safely, basic signals for communication and some basic skills that will enable them to cope with the unexpected should it occur.
The Discover Scuba Diving program is not a certification program, but it does recognize the achievements of the participants.聽 Successful completion results in the students getting a certificate and logging a dive in their 鈥減assport.鈥�
They also get a Sport Diver magazine where they can browse the dive sites of the world, the latest in equipment, the amazing variety of sea creatures around the world and read of the adventures divers have had and are planning.聽
The Battlefords Scuba Community looks upon the DSD program as an opportunity to develop interest in the sport and to recruit new members and trainees.聽 Over the six year history of the club,a number of people who completed the Discover Scuba went on to take their Open Water Scuba Diver training course and to become members.
The executive of the Battlefords Scuba Community acknowledges the program has benefitted greatly from the co-operation and assistance of the staff of the City of North Battleford Leisure Services Department, particularly the staff of the Battlefords Co-op Aquatic Centre.
The project began in 2013 when funding was received for 60 spaces for local high schools, and the reception by the local teachers was so positive it was decided to try to expand the program if the funding could be expanded.
Volunteers from the club come out to each session to help set up the gear, get the gear onto the students, make the necessary adjustments and then to help take the gear off, dismantle and rinse it before storing it.
The plans for 2015, should approval of the grant be received, include expanding the offering to community youth groups such as army and air cadets, Scouts and some of the church groups for older teens.聽
