Titanic Exhibit Coming to Calgary

 Calgary to see Titanic exhibit


 

Titanic - taken while the ship was still in Belfast

Alisdair is working on a lapbook Unit Study from "In The Hands of A Child" on the topic of "The 'Unsinkable' Titanic." The curriculum includes related vocabulary words, guided reading, a timeline of events, mapping the route of the voyage, a comparison of safety laws (then and now), an introduction to Morse Code, and creating other little booklets (such as a 'Survivor's Journal')and various other activities that help to provide facts about the R. M. S. Titanic. It also has a brief study of icebergs and what causes them. When Alisdair has completed his lapbook, I will post photographs of his work.

Some Facts about the Titanic:

* Did you know it weighed 46,239 tons and was 92 feet and six inches wide? Or that it was 882 feet and nine inches in length and 175 feet high?  Other facts are that it displaced 52,310 tons of water and its top speed was 23 knots.

* Just prior to the crash, the Titanic was traveling at 22.5 knots (or 26 miles per hour), which led Captain Edward J. Smith to believe the ship would arrive at its destination a day early.

* In 1912, it cost $7,500,000 to build. If it was rebuilt today, it would cost $400,000,000.

* The Titanic was among the largest ships of its time and had 29 boilers, a post office, a Parisian cafe, a swimming pool, and a squash court. It was very luxurious and some people even took their cars on board!

To supplement our studies we have ordered several VHS videos from the library. These have included the 1953 black and white movie "Titanic" that was an Academy Award winner, starring Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck. Later, we watched the 1997 James Cameron colour version with Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet. Another video we screened was "Titanic - The Nightmare and the Dream" a production from 1986 outlining Robert Ballard's search for the wreckage on the sea bed and showing actual footage of his findings. We currently have "The Titanic Chronicles - The 1912 Senate Investigation Into The Titanic Disaster" borrowed. This latest video, I look forward to watching, contains the actual testimony re-enacting "the most striking and revealing moments from the actual hearings" held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City and chaired by Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan.

We have also borrowed several books on the Titanic from the library. One of these is "A Giant Cutaway Book Inside the Titanic" by Ken Marschall. As I was reading aloud to Alisdair, from this book, John pulled up a chair and listened too, as details about the lives of third class passenger Frank Goldsmith and first class passenger, Billy Carter unfolded. As I closed the book, and John got up to leave, he suggested we should "study the sinking of the Bismark, too!" Who knows? Maybe we will do just that!

And so, it was with great excitement Alisdair and I learned an exhibition of artifacts salvaged from the site of the Titanic will be on display from February 11 to June 27 of 2011 at the Telus World of Science in Calgary. (Click on the phrase 'Calgary to see Titanic exhibit' at the top of this post to read a detailed article about the show from the Calgary Herald). I've written the opening and closing dates of the exhibit in my homeschool diary and want to be sure to be able to take it in. It would definitely be a field trip to remember!




Titanic - while docked (from contemporary newsreel)