6th week at UNITEC CAT - reflections

This week lesson focuses on first aid for the two days and drawing of the 7.3 metres yacht exercise. The First Aid is a good refresher for me as my last first aid lessons were back in the late 1990 with the chemical/gasification plant where I worked till year 2000.

Overall the first aid course was boring though there were several new areas of learnings for me. Areas beyond first aid such as different types of medical conditions were new learnings for me. The boredom was temporarily removed with the practices for learning how to apply dressings and bandages. As a former trainer, I would think that the handouts could be better done (more detailed separate handouts) instead of getting the students to copy down from the overhead projections. The tutors could also do with more enthusiastic approach and "talk more with all the students" rather than focusing on the right side of the class. I found the CPR practices useful especially on youth and baby (which I thought was rather inappropriate for first aid relating to work place, though nevertheless useful for audience with young family). One and half day duration would have been sufficient to cover all the contents.

The Wednesday lesson on drawing came as a "refreshing breeze" as I got to use my hands instead of just a auditory passive learning mode, when we worked on the drawing of the 7.3 metre yacht exercise. Putting into practice what we have learned so far from the previous learnings on the lofting exercise onto the drawing board/table. This is a good building learning building on the foundation gained from the lofting floor drawing exercises.

The scale format presented me with some problems of readings and I experienced some confusion in drawing the butt line 1200 on the half breadth view. The small scale also presented another challenge to my eyesight trying to estimate and read off faction of the decimal points on the scale ruler with the given table of offsets.  Nevertheless the drawing table is easier physically to work on than on the lofting floor. A good end before the mid semester break.