Incorporation of research and novel teaching ideas into the unit 'Surf equipment, design, materials and construction'
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publisher
Murdoch University
Faculty
Faculty of Regional Professional Studies
School
Regional Professional Studies Deans Office
RAS ID
2969
Abstract
There are four aspects of this paper which deal with the "Theoretic Underpinning of Innovative Practices in Teaching, Learning and Research" within the Surf Science and Technology Program at ECU. These are Experimentation and Testing on Real-Life Damages of Surfing Equipment Improvisation, Individuality of Learning environment, and Dissemination of results and conclusions, Experimentation and testing was conducted on real-life damage of surf equipment. Improvisation was necessary due to limited resources and lack of access to commercial professional testing equipment. Students had to think laterally to make use of available resources to create testing situation where were both reliable and accurate. Individual Teaching and Learning Environment involved a number of damage surf boards that were obtained from commercial surf board manufacturers and/or individuals. Students selected a damaged surfboard and had to devise a test and facility to carry out experiments from available resources. Although these units were taught there was no focus on testing the real surfboards the results and conclusions have remained within the unit. In 2004 the students were able to use their own results and the results of other students and incorporate these results into the design and manufacture of their own surfboard within other units taken concurrently with the unit. This is the first stage of dissemination of results. Moreover, for the first time this semester the teaching was focussed on examining flexural and impact behaviour of various surfboard construction panels and appears to be successful from both teaching and research point of view. Because in this relatively new academic discipline there are limited relevant professional journals specifically related 10 Surf Science and Technology this paper is one way of disseminating the results and conclusions to a wider audience.
Comments
Audy, J. , Audy, K. , & Haines, T. P. (2005). Incorporation of research and novel teaching ideas into the unit 'Surf equipment, design, materials and construction'. Proceedings of Annual Teaching and Learning Forum. (pp. 15p). Western Australia, Murdoch University. Murdoch University.