Program Overview

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EXSC313 - Aquatics and Athletics

Year

2022

Credit points

10

Campus offering

No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.

Prerequisites

Nil

Teaching organisation

150 hours of focused learning.

Unit Rationale, Description, and Aim

The ability to plan, teach, and reflect upon aquatic and athletic movement experiences is important in the education and promotion of physical activity. The aim of the unit is to develop in students an understanding of the role and purpose of participating in a range of aquatics and athletic activities to encourage and promote life-long physical activity.

Learning Outcomes

To successfully complete this unit, students should be able to:

• Plan and design a variety of teaching and learning activities that develop skills and knowledge in the area of aquatics and water safety for future practice.
• Evaluate and reflect upon effective teaching and learning experiences that facilitate the progression and development of track and field skills in athletics.
• Demonstrate basic athletic and aquatic skills.
• Explain and apply fundamental scientific principles of exercise and progressive movement patterns to facilitate learning and performance in aquatics and athletics.

Graduate Attributes

• GA1: Demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity.
• GA4: Think critically and reflectively.
• GA5: Demonstrate values, knowledge, skills, and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession.
• GA7: Work both autonomously and collaboratively.
• GA8: Locate, organise, analyse, synthesise, and evaluate information.
• GA9: Demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media.
• GA10: Utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively.

Content

Topics will include:

Aquatics

• Water familiarisation and principles of movement in water.
• Fundamentals of competitive strokes.
• Aquatic safety and survival skills.
• Organising safe and competitive activities in aquatics.
• Considerations in teaching aquatics.

Athletics

• Brief history and organisational structure of athletics.
• Organising safe and competitive activities in athletics.
• Fundamentals of athletics events: sprints, hurdles, relays, jumps, and throws.
• Basic coaching principles for athletics.

Learning and Teaching Strategy and Rationale

Student-centred teaching and learning strategies will be the focus in the unit, based on the constructivism theory and reflective practice. These strategies encourage independent and lifelong learning, where students take responsibility for their learning.

Assessment Strategy and Rationale

Employers today seek more than knowledge from students; they want them to transfer learning to real situations, problem-solve, and have higher-order thinking skills. Authentic assessment provides students with these skills because the tasks are real, meaningful, require judgment and innovation, and are related to one's workplace, personal, and social life.

Assessment Tasks

• Water Safety Booklet: Students will create a Water Safety Workbook for Year 7 students to complete in their PDHPE theory lessons.
• Teaching Presentation: In groups, students will conduct a 15-minute skill session with the class for a specific athletic skill or skill component for an allocated athletic event.
• Self-Assessment: Students will critically evaluate the effectiveness of their Teaching Presentation.
• Activity Engagement: Students will demonstrate their ongoing engagement and competency of the major skills covered during tutorials for the aquatics and athletics component of the unit.
• Written Examination: The written final examination is a traditional form of assessment to evaluate content knowledge and application.

Overview of Assessments

Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks	Weighting	Learning Outcomes	Graduate Attributes
Aquatics assessment: Water safety work booklet and activity engagement	35%	LO1, LO3	GA1, GA5, GA8, GA9, GA10
Athletics assessment: Athletics teaching presentation, with written self-assessment and activity engagement	35%	LO2, LO3	GA1, GA5, GA7, GA8, GA9
Written examination	30%	LO4	GA4, GA8

Representative Texts and References

• Athletics Australia (2008). Athletics Australia Website.
• Rice, T. (ed.) (1999). Track and Field Coaching Manual (6th ed.).
• The International Association of Athletics Federations (2008). International Association of Athletics Federations Website.
• USA Track and Field (2005). USA Track and Field Coaching Manual (1st ed.).
• Australian Council for the Teaching of Swimming and Water Safety (2008). Teaching Swimming and Water Safety (2nd ed.).
• Lees, T. (2007). Water fun.
• The Royal Life Saving Society of Australia. (2006). Swim and Survive aquapak.
• Thomas, D. (2005). Swimming: Steps to Success (3rd ed.).
• Hannula, D. (2003). Coaching Swimming Successfully (2nd ed.).