Your Top 3 Advanced Questions.

[Lee Taylor]

Is it possible to fail the course?

Your BC has completely failed and is not fixable. You are on the bottom and you are negatively buoyant. You have no up-line or down-line. How do you control your ascent?

A diver has returned to the boat and is expelling bloody froth. What is the first thing you do?

 

[SCUBA482]

For college kids, i think they should have a good lesson on how and where people die when scuba diving. Going over some of those statistics, about people reaching the surface and dieing, people sinking and drowning without ditching lead, the frequency of occurance of both buddy separation and death. You should have the time to teach these things and for testosterone laden college boys showing off around girls, this factual information might be particularly useful. Some questions about these issues above would seem good.

I like the thought of stressing the dangers, but I'd probably use some DAN fatality information to do case studies during the class with discussion on preventative measures or what could they have done better type answers. Even look through the A&I thread for info and discuss errors made, equipment failures and what could have been done to help the class (who doesn't get to dive often during the class) to visualize diving and preventative measure with situational awareness. I'm not sure I'd use the "Your all gonna die" process to drive the point home though.

 

[Divedoggie]

For any newer divers reading this thread and thinking about taking AOW, or questioning their LDS...

The 8 week university AOW course that we are discussing is a unique opportunity available only to enrolled college students.

A course like this is not cost effective for a dive shop or independent instructor to offer. Even through the University, I essentially end up making very little money for this class. I'm paid per student, and usually only have a dozen students take the Scuba II class per semester, where as I have at least 120 ScubaI(OW) students per semester.

I have tried to get our dive shop onto a more thorough AOW program for the general public, but it was a hard sell. As much as we talk about thorough training here on SB, in reality, most people want to get in, get it done and get out, and then head to the airport for their dive vacation.

A number of years ago, PADI offered an expanded AOW course and it was eventually eliminated from the line up of courses due to lack of student interest. But things come full circle, whats old is new.
We did expand and enhance the public class to include a pool session with a skills review and a buoyancy/finning workshop. Students are required to read the entire AOW book and complete all knowledge reviews.

The classroom session details any questions that may come up concerning the topics in the book. We go further into Deep, Nav, and the 3 chosen dives. The rest of the time is devoted to dive theory, dive planning, gas management, essential equipment/configuration, and Q and A. 3 hours in class, 1 in the pool.

Precision is required on the AOW dives, both with the tasks and with buoyancy, trim, finning, and we shoot video of each person and review it with them.
This AOW course is more expensive than average, and some customers are put off. In the end, you win a few customers and you lose a few, but at least we are trying.

 

[Divedoggie]

Is it possible to fail the course?

Yes.
Attendance is mandantory, knowledge reviews must be completed, each student must make a presentation to the class, and they must pass the final with an 80% or better.

I have yet to have a student not take this class seriously and fail. In fact quite the opposite. They love the class, are highly motivated and have excelled. It will be interesting to incorporate this new final exam.

 

[Subcooled]

Ask them to list 25 different ways of dying in dive accidents. It's a VERY good thing to teach people to THINK. Or else you must affix a label "may cause drowning if inhaled" to water itself.

 

[Spazzy]

1. How is partial pressure of oxygen calculated and what is the maximum safe value for diving?

2. How much gas is required for a 22 minute dive at 12 meters? Assume a square profile and immediate ascent and descent.

3. What is the procedure for safely dealing with a bottom time that exceeds the no decompression limit by 7 minutes (assumes sufficient gas supply for all contingencies).

 

[Kingpatzer]

A favorite question of mine:

Any diver has the right and responsibility to call any dive for any reason. Give me an example of a plausible scenario where you would call a dive, and why it would be a good idea in that case to do so. In your situation would you find it easy or difficult to do so? What arguments might your buddy try to use to persuade you to dive anyway? How might you answer those arguments?