AISD scuba class focuses on safety, opportunity
By
SCOTT BOWLEN Daily News Staff Writer
If time allows, students
can progress to rescue diver certification also, according to PADI
IDC
Staff Instructor Tani Church Bell. "Then
there are opportunities to do specialty certifications if they take it
for a second semester or multiple years," she said.
"In trying to build up our vocational program, this kind of fit hand-in-glove," Agenbroad said one big goal is safety, he said.
Most participants in the Annette Island commercial dive fisheries (which is "hookah" diving that uses air supplies from the surface rather than from scuba tanks carried by the diver) have trained in the Seattle area for a "couple of weekends."
The high school scuba course will give the students significant time and training in the water before they might be diving commercially.
" When they're out in the water commercially, hopefully they'll be a lot safer in the water than somebody who has spent only a few weekends in the water," Agenbroad said.
Another important goal is to give students a glimpse into the professional possibilities of diving, said Agenbroad and Bell.
" This just creates another opportunity and way for kids to move ahead with their lives once they get out of high school," she said.
With AISD School Board support, the district began work in earnest toward a scuba program early this year, putting together a curriculum, writing funding grants and locating equipment. All of the necessary equipment is provided to the students. Earl Jeffrey, who's involved with a similar program at the Hydaburg School District, was very helpful with curriculum and equipment issues, said Agenbroad.
Metlakatla
High School student Travis Moran waves underwater during a recent snorkel
dive near Metlakatla for the Annette Islands School District's new scuba
class. Photo by Tani Church Bell He also credited Annette Island Service Unit Director Rachel Askren for her assistance with pool time and putting on clinics such as first aid and CPR. "She has an interest in keeping the local divers safe," Agenbroad said.
He also said that Bell's presence in Metlakatla and her willingness to teach the program is an "absolute blessing."
Bell, whose husband
is site manager for the Annette Island Service Unit, has an interesting
personal history with diving.
Her father was the late Ron Church, a pioneering diver and underwater photographer/cinematographer who worked with Jacques Cousteau.
As a young child, she traveled around Europe with her father aboard Cousteau's research vessel Calypso. But she herself didn't learn to dive until after moving to Alaska during the 1990s.
From June 2005 to June 2006 she was an intern assistant dive safety officer at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, teaching volunteer divers how to dive in the various aquarium habitats. In addition to teaching the high school class, Bell is helping adult divers to obtain divemaster and assistant instructor certification.
" We need to have some local people who are ultimately instructors and divemasters so the (high school) program is self-sustaining in the community," Agenbroad said.
The high school class has begun with students ranging from the freshman to the senior levels, said Bell, who has posted photos from the class on her Web site, www.tani.us.
" They're all very excited," she said. And a program with enthusiastic students is good news for educators.
" It's another one of those twists in education that may get a kid out of bed and into school," said Agenbroad.
Annette Island School District SCUBA Program GoDIVAS!
9/16/06