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Hi @jocudmore – what a fun challenge! Here’s an idea to cater for those who don’t own cameras and aren’t divers …
I assume they should all have phones with cameras with them in the class? Take in a few underwater critter toys (eg nudibranch, octopus, etc). If a few can be approx true to size, that would be awesome. Maybe one toy per ‘buddy pair’ or ‘buddy trio’. The toys could be rotated amongst the groups for different tasks.
As you go through principles of uw photography, get them to do some practice shots on the toys, demonstrating the principle you’ve just explained
eg the different impacts between shooting from a low, upwards angle or shooting close vs from a distance.
You could then get them to put their all their phones displaying their images on a desk face up (with screen locks turned off) to compare their different results. This could show how even under the same circumstances different people with different perspectives and different equipment will produce different images.
You could set them little challenges along the way eg take a photo that achieves a particular goal eg one they think will be different from what everyone else in the group might take.You could show pairs of images of similar subjects – one that shows a probem, and one that doesn’t demonstrate that problem. Then ask the group to identify what the problem was, how the problem was created and how they think it was avoided in the 2nd photo ie get them to figure out that backscatter is a problem, to theorise what caused the problem, and to theorise how that problem might be avoided underwater.
Use a similar technique to discuss angles, lighting, etc.
You could get them to take 3 photos of the same subject: a bad photo, a good photo and a ‘wow’ photo – then get them to explain in buddy pairs or to the class the changes they made. Alternatively, you could use buddy pairs to provide feedback on what changes they think their buddy made to level up their images.
Teaching through questioning activates the learner’s brain, stimulates engagement and deepens learning. This is just a couple of ideas. Happy to workshop any others with you.