Title: Titanic
Lesson 1: Introduction
• Explain learners will be completing a project on Titanic which will finish with a build of the ship (plus maybe separate features such as cross sections of the watertight compartments, lifeboats) in Minecraft, and inclusion of important information (e.g., chalkboards) for anyone visiting their build.
• Brief activity to stimulate interest such as KWL.
• Show some photos and provide basic information on Titanic story on IWB. Learners take notes in groups of 3 (assign one in each group to be the recorder) of anything they think to be of particular importance for their project, anything they would like to find out more about in their own research, any further questions they want to find answers to).
• L section of KWL completed.
• Group discussion and reporting back of where to go from here, i.e., what areas project should be broken into, how learners can find out more.
Lessons 2 and 3: Group Research
• Learners complete own research in small groups using tablets or laptops, downloading photos, watching videos, recording information in writing, drawing diagrams etc.
• In older classes, different groups could be assigned a particular area of research, e.g., structure of ship (how many levels, features such as swimming pool etc), the building company White Star Line.
• Groups report back to class.
• Photos can be printed and information put together on chart paper for display.
Lessons 4 and 5: Practise Build In Preparation For Minecraft
• Having spent a lot of time sourcing and gathering found materials at home, learners bring these to class to share with their small group.
• Groups plan how they will use the materials available to them to build the ship, and plan the build by drawing diagrams for example.
• Learners construct the ship from the found materials.
Review and Notes:
• Research phase of project may comprise more lessons to include activities such as a trip to local library, a visit from a guest speaker/historian, a trip to the Titanic Museum in Belfast.
• There is a Titanic Lesson available on Minecraft Education website https://education.minecraft.net/Y1SYV
• Curricular Subjects Addressed: History, Geography (e.g., intended journey mapped, location of accident found on map), Maths (e.g., based on passenger numbers, dimensions of ship), Literacy, Art, SPHE.