Titanic Teaching Tools

Shanna Martin 0:19

Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast, where each week we talk about a free piece of technology that you can use in your classroom. I'm your host, Shanna Martin. I'm a middle school teacher Technology and Instructional Coach for my district.

Fuzz Martin 0:32

And her producer and husband Fuzz Martin and podcast editing is just the tip of the iceberg. For my technical skills. Oh, yeah, it was

Shanna Martin 0:45

And your career just sunk.

Fuzz Martin 0:48

It's cold. It's colder than the Atlantic Ocean. And December What month was

Shanna Martin 0:55

April? April. Well, everybody, guess what? What? Week,

Fuzz Martin 1:05

what are we talking about today, Shanna,

Shanna Martin 1:07

it's Titanic week and the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast,

Fuzz Martin 1:10

you are a titanic nerd.

Shanna Martin 1:13

I enjoy it. Yeah, it's kind of fun. And actually, like I was that, it was always an interesting topic to me, because I think it's an interesting topic to a lot of people like it is a highly engaging topic in schools, libraries, because there's no books. But when I started teaching, especially history, then it turned into a whole nother beast, because it's not just teaching about a ship that sunk in the ocean. But I can tie it into, like, the class system, I can tie it into world history, I can tie it into law, I can tie it into, we tie it into science, and whether we tie it into so many different so many different topics can be taught using the Titanic as your like, North Star. I know. Yeah. Like what's gonna like how you get the content to the kids, because they are so interested in it. And like the people and the celebrities, and I mean, as I teach middle school in eighth grade, like, Can we watch the movie? I'm like, Absolutely not. But we can watch a documentary on it. And they're like, oh, but then they're really engaged in the engineering behind it. And like, we talked about the science of metals, like it's insane how many different topics you can actually tie into this one tragic event that happened in history. So we are talking about the ties

Fuzz Martin 2:32

Which everybody knows happened in April.

Shanna Martin 2:38

Yeah, so today will be a fun history lesson for you as well, while we talk about these goodness websites that we're going to talk about. So yeah, hi, everyone. So excited to talk.

Fuzz Martin 2:54

I knew you'd get fired up about this.

Shanna Martin 2:55

Um, so this is episode 148. We are highlighting the Titanic I'm not going to go through. I have so many resources on the Titanic. But a lot of it's huge. Like if you go to YouTube and type in Titanic documentary and do something specific. So if you just as a search to help you searching, if you're teaching kids about Titanic, you go to YouTube, and it's not blocked at your school, you go to teacher tube, if it is, and you search Titanic, but you want to like hone it down to a specific concept about the Titanic. You can search like Titanic documentary kids Titanic documentary. And then you can do iceberg specific cold weather mirages, you can search materials the ship is made from, you can search the discovery of the Titanic, you can search the artifacts that have been dug up from the Titanic. You can search survivors on the Titanic, you can search for you can search, you know, people who pass from the Titanic, you can search famous people on the Titanic. And every single one of those searches will give you something that will give you specific documentaries, videos, content specific to those different parts of the Titanic. Sure. So don't you can search just Titanic. But you're going to come up with hundreds of probably 1000s of videos. But to search specific things for the content that you want to zone in on, you can do that on YouTube. Cool. So that's one of the starting points that I teach the kids how to do that because they do an inquiry on this in my classroom. So we talked about if we're going to look for things. First you need to find real content that's created by National Geographic, the Smithsonian, like actual places. And then like if they're searching Dr. Robert Ballard, the guy who discovered this titanic, like find real people. Before he just started searching fan art because there's so much fan art, the Titanic, so it's just something

Fuzz Martin 4:41

it's all just jack on a door. Yes, no, that he wasn't on the door. He wasn't on the door. He was on the ocean roses on the door. Jack I can do your whole bit. Jack

Shanna Martin 4:56

That's the whistle on the back. I

Fuzz Martin 4:57

do that all the time. Whenever we bring up the Titanic A little thing.

Shanna Martin 5:01

So let's talk about some actual websites that have information about the Titanic on them. So besides searching and finding books, print books, too. There's a book that I use all the time. It's called Titanic voices from disaster. It is nonfiction. It is based on interviews of survivors of the book. It reads like fiction, though it reads like a story. But you hear about survivors, like quotes from survivors, and they actually tell their story of what they experienced. So I use that as a, like a chunk of teaching in my classroom. But the website that we probably use most often that I have my kids use the most often. And it is their favorite website to use. Because it is all things Titanic in one spot. It is called encyclopedia. ti—, like dash titanica.org.

Fuzz Martin 5:51

Okay, so kinda like Encyclopedia Britannica. And it's Titanica. Nice, clever. Yes. Extra points to them.

Shanna Martin 5:59

So encyclopedia-titanica.org. Nice. And it has everything you could possibly ever want or need or need to know or research the Titanic with. So let's talk about the site. It does have ads, just be aware. Yep. But homepage. General Questions and Answers about the Titanic. What do you want to know? We'll give you some general like people pose questions. Okay. Not your best set of information, but they do have a question answer section on this day. You can click on it and see like events from today. And you can see specific things that were going on with newspapers with people who were on the Titanic and like random things. So there's a random information about to encyclopedia Titanica and some background information. Okay, so the real things that you're going to want to look at across the top we've got Titanic people deck plans features are probably the best pieces to start with. You have facts about the RMS Titanic. Do you know without googling it? What RMS stands for

Fuzz Martin 7:10

Royal Majesty's Ship, (wrong). Okay. Royal majestic. No. is the first word royal Yes. All right. Marine. No. Mommy.

Shanna Martin 7:21

Something that ship does.

Fuzz Martin 7:23

Oh, maiden. No.

Shanna Martin 7:25

There are other RMS ships out there. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay.

Fuzz Martin 7:29

What is the shipping Moor

Shanna Martin 7:32

know? What does the ship do? The ship particular and I rms ship does merchantile delivers?

Fuzz Martin 7:40

Mattresses mail? Oh, okay. Royal Mail ship Royal Mail ship. Okay.

Shanna Martin 7:46

So couldn't deliver mail. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Officially, it has like, posts off on everything. All right. So RMS Titanic, you got all the background questions. White Star Line, which is the obviously the ship company that was part of

Fuzz Martin 7:59

it's like the Carnival of that of that day, right.

Shanna Martin 8:04

Cruises? Yeah, they have, like the design of the ship, which you can go into specific the deck plans, which we'll talk about a second through rescue, so you can click on it. And it'll give you all kinds of information and takes you to pictures and articles about like Carpathia and things like that. And I witnessed testimony and different information you can pull up. So it was good on Titanic inquiries, discovery and salvage, you can click on that. And they can learn more about these are, again, more articles, and then also artifacts that have been dug up and more connections to it. So it's like a giant, basically, it houses all kinds of information. If you go to people, this is what I use with most with my students. Because obviously, there's over 2000 passengers on the Titanic and trying to sort through that even if we read our books, you only can find so many things. We talk a lot about first, second and third class and understanding like how their experience was different and what that looked like at that time. And so you can click on passengers, and then there's a drop down first class passengers, it will give you a full listing of those, like a full comprehensive list of your first class passengers. And then what's cool with each passenger, you have their age, their class, their ticket number, what their ticket costs, and when they joined the ship. So whether it was in Southampton or in Belfast, or Cherbourg, France, and then it'll tell you, if they went on a lifeboat what number it was, and it will tell you it'll give you an image of that person. And if you click on them, it gives you like, a short bio of that person on the Titanic. And then who else are connected to which is crazy. Yeah. So it's super cool because the kids are really into like, I want to know about this person or tell me about the first class people tell me about third class people are talking about something less. And so you can this is a great way if you want to create your own escape room like you can link kids in and they can go through and like you've seen it in museums or a lot of times I do where you fall you take a ticket you follow passenger through the Titanic. Yeah, just the if you like live or survive, you know, or if you end up drowning or whatever, you can create one of those just based on this information, which is really cool. And it'll give you different pieces of information about all of these different people. If you go under like third class passengers, you can start that way, you also can sort by other passenger lists. So if they're coming from if they Road, Belfast to Southampton, if they went to Southampton to Cherbourg, Southampton to Queenstown, and then servants versus children. So they have the breakdown of the crew then. So like deck crew versus stewards versus orchestra versus the postal clerks versus the restaurant staff. And again, all you do is click on it, you get a list of these people, and you get like, their whole backstory of who they are, their age, their class, where they joined this journey, what their job was, if they made it on a lifeboat, what they looked like, who they're connected to. It's amazing how much information is gathered here. And it will also break down by like, victims versus survivors, and then it'll tell you if their body was recovered or not, and just so much information. So I have students go through and like they have to pick first class, second class, third class and tell me about their experiences when they get to pick and choose. And then they also have the deck plans of the ship. So next across, we use the blueprints a lot when referencing because the Titanic was ginormous, and trying to explain how people like which rooms were where, and then when the ship is sinking, how the ship split in half. And then how, like where that was on the ship and trying to explain to them like, like, it's not normal for a ship to split in half. So yes, like what was wrong with that, and then they can see that on the blueprints of the ship so they can see the deck plans. And then it also breaks it down by deck. So not only do you just get like the general like blueprint of the ship, but then it'll also give you a through g deck. And then it'll show you all the different pieces, and what the blueprints of the ship look like. And you can zoom in on them. And then go through the different ship plans if you want to. And students just have it as like a visual reference, which is really cool. They also like features. So they have different pictures of looking at the Titanic. There's other articles. And there's like old video clips, which I think are super cool. And they're like black and white, you can see the actual footage of the ship kind of floating and moving. And then they have construction and design. So they do have a lot of like, what do you want to call them? Like a question. Portals, I guess are where people can pose a question and then be a part of a discussion, like a larger discussion on the Titanic. Those are available. That's just something to be aware of with students, if you want to, like Moses, just like Titanic discussion, but just be aware that there are discussion threads, I guess on here. So it's something to think about. They also connect to other like mystery ships and things like that. So encyclopedia Titanica has a huge amount of Titanic information for students to research to pull up timelines of information and have articles and videos and images and just all kinds of great discussion. And all the pieces that go into this, not just that the ship sunk in the ocean, but also how it connects to different communities and different countries, and how that was handled. From different leaders and things like that was just kind of interesting and cool. So this is a fantastic website for kids to go through. And I would say upper elementary will have probably like fifth or sixth grade on up can use the site just because it's a lot of words. It's not a ton of visuals until you search the right thing that you're looking for. Right. And so

I went and looked at victims, and I just scrolled through and clicked on one random one and I got John Jacob Astor, who was the one of the richest men in the world who died on the Titanic, is it founder of The Astoria Hotel. And I read all that story running encyclopedia Titanica.

Look at that little background information. He's one of like, the well known people. Yep. Very cool. So encyclopedia titanica.org is a great place to start early student inquiry research, just random information. You want to learn more about the Titanic, everybody, the general information 18 That kind of set sail April 10. hit the iceberg on the 14th sank on the 15th. That's why we feel the need I feel the need to share this with everyone because it's coming up. So if you need a lesson for a day or two either coming to or from in the spring break or state six coming out right now. This is a cool way to just get students engaged in and some interesting discussion and it's coming up around the corner. So there you go. So on with that though, the second side I have is it has great information about the Titanic. But also the website is just really cool and you can use it for other oceanic thing. So the site is based on the national A Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and no, no, no. Yeah. So their site does have some specific information for RMS Titanic history and significance. And I have my students use this based on. Because we talk a lot about the weather, we make the connection in science class. So they actually learn about the weather in science class about the Titanic, and what it was like to have a cold weather mirage. What that is a talk about iceberg as they talk about Newton's law and how that connects with the Titanic hitting the iceberg. And all of those pieces to it. What's cool about this is this gives you Titanic specific information. But also, it's gonna give you all kinds of cool information about weather and science and things like that. So if you want to search it, specifically, it's NOAA.gov. And those really long after it ish, like international section, RMS Titanic history and significance, okay. But if you just type in NOAA.gov, and search Titanic, you'll get there, which is probably the faster way to do it. So what's cool is they have this giant, like the history and significance, they go behind it, then they have all these related links. So the maritime act of 1986, they talk about guidelines, they talked about the Titanic, they talked about documents, and references, and all kinds of stuff. But what else is cool about this website is on the left hand side, you have all kinds of other cool resources to use in your classroom that are not even Titanic related, even though I use it for Titanic related stuff. So you have weather. And again, it's like this little blue bar is gonna give you all kinds of information about the National Weather Service, and how they're building like a Weather Ready Nation. And you can find all kinds of specific articles on weather and forecasts and things like that. They have a whole section on climate, which then we'll go through shows you these really cool models and these cool coastal creatures and what these like satellite images are from space about like the Gulf of Mexico and all kinds of cool stuff. They have oceans and coasts, fisheries, which is really fun. If you go to the fisheries, provided science based conservation management, and they talk about fisheries and they give you all kinds of background information, again, articles information is great to use. In any class, you can tie these pieces in there like irrelevant, you can pull it if you're gonna do science in science class, great you but you can connect this to social class and writing and all kinds of things. Satellites, I love a good satellite image. They show all the different ways they use satellites. And what you can see from and again, more articles, information, research, marine and aviation charting, sanctuaries, and then more stuff on education. They have a whole education section. They have resources, they have opportunities, and they have news stories, student opportunities, educator opportunities, grants, all kinds of great information. Even if you're not teaching Titanic, this is a cool website to use in your classroom. Let your students explore it, you can explore it, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a fantastic website of resources. You can go into history, check other historical events, not just the Titanic, and all different types of information and resources for educators. So an O a noaa.gov.

Yeah, fun fact, if you ever hear of the National Weather Service, that's part of NOAA. So

there you go. Yep. So all kinds of super cool, fun things, not just about the Titanic, but if you want to search the Titanic, they have great resources for that. Yes.

Plenty of resources on that. Pretty cool. Yeah.

So we love a good Titanic resource. There's so many things. But Titanic is such an engaging topic for students. And it doesn't always just have to be like the history of what happened. But you can tie it into kind of any content area and connected between content areas as well. And hopefully, these fun little sites will engage your students and keep them plugging along here through end of third fourth quarter. And moving on in the school year. Getting closer. Yeah. I'm just starting fourth quarter now. Yeah. Oh, nine weeks, right.

It's another works.

Yeah. About that or so. Right? From Yeah. So thanks for tuning in. This has been, the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast. If you ever have any questions, you can find me on Twitter at smartinwi. And if you want to get more information on the links to the technology discussed in this episode, there's a smartinwi.com. If you'd like to support the show, please consider buying me a coffee or to visit buymeacoffee.com/smartwi or visit smartinwi.com and click on that cute little purple coffee cup. Your donations help keep the show going. New episodes each week. Thanks for listening, go educate and innovate.

The ideas and opinions expressed on this podcast and the smart in WI website are those of the author, Shanna Martin, and not of her employer prior to using any of the technologies discussed in this podcast, please consult with your employer regulations. This podcast offers no guarantee that these tools will work for you as described, but we sure hope they do. We'll talk to you next time right here on the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast.