I was asked if I could share some resources for teaching and learning about the Titanic. I had a few things already in my archives. Then I did some searching and came up with handful of additional resources to add to the list.
On Board the Titanic is a virtual field trip produced by Discovery. To take the field trip students select one of five characters to be as they set sail on the Titanic. When selecting a character the students do not know who they are or if they will survive until the night of the sinking. Students will spend four or five virtual days learning about the ship and their character. Only on the night of April 15, 1912 do they learn who they are and if they will survive.
From Snag Films and National Geographic, Secrets of the Titanic.
National Geographic is featuring the Titanic this month. One of the neat resources that they’ve put online is Unseen Titanic. Unseen Titanic has two galleries of interactive images of where the Titanic now rests under the Atlantic Ocean. The Crash Scene interactive gallery is a collection of artifacts found on the seafloor. Zoomified is the other gallery that National Geographic is featuring this month. The Zoomified gallery has four views of the submerged wreckage of the Titanic.
WatchKnowLearn has a collection of fifteen short videos about the Titanic. Included in that collection is this interactive timeline from History.com. The timeline starts with the construction of the Titanic and ends in 1913 with stories from survivors.
The Library of Congress offers an excellent lesson plan for middle school and high school students. The lesson plan requires students to analyze primary documents to construct the real story of the sinking of the Titanic. Students need to be able to identify bias and gaps in the stories of the sinking of the Titanic.
The BBC’s Survivors of the Titanic Series contains 13 audio recordings of survivors relaying their experiences. The collection also includes six primary source documents. Titanic: Sinking the Myths is another BBC feature about the Titanic. Sinking the Myths analyzes five causes commonly blamed for the sinking of the Titanic.
National Geographic XPeditions has a Titanic lesson plan designed for middle school use. The lesson plan includes the use of 3D animations of the Titanic as well as a study of ocean currents.
On Open Culture I found a video of what may be the only existing film footage of the Titanic. The footage was shot in a shipyard while the Titanic was under construction.
Estate of Hans Jensen v. The White Star Line is a mock trial in which the plaintiffs bring suit against the Titanic’s operators for negligence. You can read through each part of the trial or you could use the framework to recreate the trial in your classroom.
