BSAC Ocean Diver & Sports Diver

Diving instructor (practical and theory)

While completing my undergraduate degree in Animal Biology at the University of Stirling, I was a member (and for 1 year President) of the Stirling University Sub Aqua Club (SUSAC). After completion of the BSAC Instructor Foundation Course, I taught both theory and practical lessons for BSAC Ocean Diver and Sport Diver qualifications.

This early experience of lecturing resulted in me finishing my undergraduate degree with a comparatively large amount of experience in public speaking, which has served me well. And while the content of these lectures was fixed, I enjoyed the challenge (and camaraderie of other teachers) in finding ways to best communicate the ideas to students.

I have not been SCUBA diving since leaving Stirling, but I still use the lessons I learned as instructor in my teaching today. I think BSAC’s philosophy of developing competence and confidence by ensuring an idea’s foundational parts are firmly understood before combining it into a whole applies equally well to how to perform a t-test as it does to how to clear a flooded SCUBA mask.