Investigation:
Project Week is an integral part of the High School Learning Programme for all Grade 11 students. It is a unique opportunity for you to learn more about yourself, different cultures and your ability to work effectively with others. I decided I wanted to go diving. I want to do this action because I have enjoyed the idea of scuba diving in the past and am willing to learn this new skill and take a course to be an open water diver. I found three other people who want to do the same thing and together we will be doing scuba diving, and getting our Open Water certificates. We also decided we will be in Phuket, Thailand (Phuket Island). On the first day we will use the resort pool for a practice dive and for the 4 Open Water dives we will go off Chalong Pier into Chalong bay.
Preparation:
We had a lot of problems with our group, first one of the people in my group had their open-water certification already, and we were only allowed to dive in groups of two or more. So we decided that another person would do their open water so that they could join the other member in getting their advanced open water, while the rest of the group would continue to get their open water. However, later we found out that the person who had their open-water was leaving our school and therefore could not be on this trip. Due to this we were too small of a group, as now we only had 3 people. Fortunately, we found another group member who didn’t have their open water certificate that could join us in our trip. We had filled out our forms for the diving course and we also found a resort that was affordable for us that was right next to the diving center, which was very beneficial. We had prepared our budget and itinerary in detail to be 100% of what we were doing and when. We also recorded our medical information including any medication, doctor information as well as the nearest hospital in phuket just in case, we also assigned a detailed first-aid course to a group member, while the rest of us also had a short first-aid course. We also started looking at flights and timings as well as transportation in Phuket. Since everything was close by to our resort, we could walk to everything, the diving center also provided transportation to the center. We were also in contact with the organization trying to get additional information such as the timings of the diving each day as well as the food they would provide for us.
Our smart goal for the trip was:
S = The goal of the project is to develop diving skills and becoming an open water diver in a different environment. While we are diving with Seabees, they will teach us more about how they manage to protect the ecosystem around them, and we will make sure to enquire as much as we can in this aspect.
M = Progress can be tracked by writing down notes everyday after the diving sessions, can also be tracked through social media posts. Feedback from instructors will also be written down.
A = Goal is attainable as the course for the open water diving will be achieved by the help of the team at Sebees and the instructors teaching us.
R = The company’s mission is to show the beautiful diving sites of Thailand while respecting and practicing Thai culture as well as to end shark finning and stop the use of drift nets. We are willing to help with what we can, the money that we pay for our diving courses will go towards protecting marine life as well as we will pay a Marine Park fee.
T = Our goal is to be completed by 4th June at the latest.
We also decided to do physical preparation:
Leg exercises will be needed in order to have leg strength when swimming. Swimming exercises – periodic increases in lengths and slowly building up i.e. 10 lengths up to 20 lengths after 2 weeks etc. We should do these exercises regularly in order to build up the strength and once we have reached the goal we should continue to do it as we should maintain the strength.
In the 3 weeks before the trip, we will meet up in Changi Club (Saturday evenings) and do two rounds of pool training with a break of 1 hour in the middle, doing:
- 10 lengths of the pool per round in the first week
- 20 lengths in the second week
- 30 in the third week
We will complete an online theory course before we go, which is provided by Seabees. We will also fill in a log of our physical preparation beforehand as we do lengths of the pool to keep track of our progress.
However, due to COVID-19 our trip was cancelled and we were not able to go on this trip. We planned a tremendous amount and we were all disappointed when we learnt the news as we spent a long time perfecting the trip when we weren’t even able to go on it.
