Survival On Board the Titanic
Goals:
The students will gain a better understanding of procedures on boarda ship such as the Titanic.
The students will critically analyze the materials necessary for survival.
The students will gain skills manipulating a browser and using Web pages for research.
Resources:
The Titanic Index
Time:
This lesson will take approximately two hours of class time.
Procedure:
1. Explain the premise of the exercise by guiding your students through the relevant portions of the Titanic Index (If you have access to ANight to Rememberre-read the chapter where the passengers board the lifeboats). This part also emphasizes the lackof training the crew had and the lack of safety procedures and precautions.
2. Lead a class discussion about what could have been done differentlyto save lives. Hopefully, this will lead to the fact that the crew couldhave been better prepared.
3. Explain to the students that they are now the crew of the Titanic,and they are to come up with emergency procedures for the ship.
4. Divide the students into groups of 4-5 people.
5. Have each group come up with specific steps that would need to betaken on a boat such as the Titanic in the case of an emergency.
6. Help students through this process by reminding them of currentregulations in place for emergencies in theschool such as tornadoes or fire.
7. Looking at a cross section of the Titanic, have students plan anevacuation procedure for the passengers. Pretend for the sake of this exercisethat there were enough boats for every passenger. Have variable factorssuch as time and the number of people that would be feasible on the deckat one time.
8. Next, have the students draw up a list of essentials for survival.Talk about certain advantages some items had over others.
Assessment:
The students will be evaluated on the basis of their escape plan.
Criteriafor success: The group's plan addresses all of the concerns on the evacuationplan.
The students will evaluate each others plans on the criteria of thoroughnessand usefulness.
Curricular Strands:
Language Arts - problem solving, critical thinking
Social Studies - assessment of the ship and its capacities at the time
Math - estimating the number of passengers on the lifeboats and calculatingtime.
Technology - Internet searching and browsing -- using a Web site goater information and form hypothesis problem solve.
Possible Extensions:
Have the students make emergency plans for their houses (i.e. tornado,fire, etc.).
Have the students evaluate current ship emergency procedures.