Influence of Piercam on student learning

Piercam is now used as a successful teaching tool in a number of units within Curtin’s Bachelor of Aquatic Science (Coastal Zone Management) programme. It helps the students to develop skills in biodiversity measurement and bio-monitoring using real time data, which they can simultaneously access over the internet. Due to the location of the cameras in an area with an incredibly diverse and abundant fish assemblage, featuring huge grouper, several shark species including reef sharks and grey nurse sharks, spectacular schools of trevally and stripeys, and around 150 different species of fish, keeping students attention is not an issue. In addition, all the data from Piercam is recorded and can therefore be used for longer-term baseline monitoring projects at the pristine Ningaloo Reef, adjacent to the rapidly expanding North West Shelf oil and gas industry. Potential projects include seasonal / temporal changes in fish diversity; biodiversity as a measure of ecosystem health; and correlations between biodiversity and anthropogenic or natural impacts such as cyclones, prawn trawling in Exmouth Gulf, marina / coastal development, climate change etc.

Breadth of impact

In addition to providing a flexible, innovative and exciting teaching tool for staff and students, the Piercam project has been a showcase for Curtin University in the Exmouth region. There has been significant community, local and federal government input in setting up and maintaining the project. Many technical aspects of installing the cameras in a high energy, remote and environmentally sensitive area required local assistance. In addition, its location on a secure Navy Base and associated national security issues required some innovative engineering feats such as the 14km wireless link to the receiver in Exmouth town centre. Local benefits include access to the live footage, which has been used to promote the area for tourism (Exmouth Shire and local dive companies) as well as educating locals and tourists on the amazing biodiversity of the region. The impact of the Piercam project is still expanding. The new Discovery Centre set up by the Department of Fisheries at Hillary’s Boat Harbour now features Piercam with a link to live images, and recorded footage, to educate the public on the biodiversity of the Ningaloo region. There are plans to introduce it to education programs at TAFE and local schools in Exmouth, and the potential use of the data over the World Wide Web is huge. Piercam allows all students, irrespective of their physical capabilities or cultural backgrounds, to study an environment that many of them would otherwise be unlikely to access. Some students do have the chance to go to the Exmouth Navy Pier on the Aquatic Science Study Tour, but the area is restricted so often access is denied, and even if the students do enter the water only those with good snorkeling and swimming skills really benefit from the experience. Physical conditions at the Pier often impede diver observations, with strong tides, varying turbidity, numerous barnacle encrusted pylons and deep water. In contrast, Piercam allows all students to study biodiversity with no diver interference, from the comfort of a laboratory with the ability to view live footage, recorded footage, take snapshots of images, do species counts and practice using biodiversity indices.

Future plans

Piercam has recently expanded to include a weather station that takes many observations of climatic condition above the water, like barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, rainfall, temperature, etc. Plans are also underway to install “Capecam” at the nearby Vlaminghead Lighthouse, where general coastal conditions and whale movements can be monitored. Further, Broome Jettycam is also on the drawing board, an initiative that will use technology developed in the Piercam project to link the world into aquatic life underwater at Broome, in Western Australia’s North West.

Download arcthive of Issue 2

Videos were uploaded into Blackboard and linked to theoretical sessions. A number of “characters” were developed to address the students in a short 2 – 5 minute presentation that outlined what the lecture would be about, who would present it and why it would be important to attend. These characters “Nurse Betty”, “Gracie” and “Bazza” have been well received and have helped promote lecture attendance with between 60 – 90% of students coming to lectures. The videos are done in a comical and instructive way and seem to have struck a cord with students who have told me they are looking forward to further appearances of these characters.

The video clips fit into a package of information related to each theory session. The videos are followed on the web page by the Power Point session related to the specific session, which is then linked to an lecture recording of the presentation. In this way students are supported to learn in a flexible way and have a choice about how they gather information related to each topic. However, having student attend theory sessions (all planned as preludes to clinical practice tutes) means that student end up engaging with far more than previously offered. Creating a rich, exciting and dynamic learning environment