Humanities Thinking Skills Activity
Year Group:8/9
Subject/topic: The Twentieth Century: Why did the
Titanic sink and why did so may die?
Activity developed by: Maxine Squire
Brief description of the activity: The teacher can begin the activity by suggesting a
particular hypothesis e.g. the ship sank and so many died because….. The cards can be
issued to pairs/small groups to test the hypothesis and generate alternative solutions. The
activity encourages the students to sort and classify the cards and reach substantiated
conclusions – they have to justify their thinking in either agreeing with or challenging the
hypothesis presented by the teacher.
The card sort can lead to a mind mapping activity that can be used to support extended
writing.
Thinking Skills promoted by the activity (please highlight the types of thinking
promoted by the activity):
Information processing
Reasoning
Enquiry
Creative thinking
Evaluation
Gather information, sort, classify,
sequence, compare and contrast,
analyse part and whole
relationships.
Give reasons for opinions and
decisions, use precise language to
explain thinking.
Ask relevant questions, pose and
define problems, plan what to do
and how to research, predict
outcomes and anticipate
consequences, test conclusions and
improve ideas.
Generate ideas, apply imagination in
the search for alternative solutions
Evaluate information, develop
criteria for judging their own and
others’ thinking and ideas.
Why did the Titanic sink and why did so many die?
The maiden voyage of the Titanic
was Captain E.J. Smith’s
retirement trip. Captain Smith
was aged 62.
Captain Smith ignored seven
iceberg warnings from his crew
and other ships.
Captain Smith was considered to
be very competent and well liked
by both the crew and the
management of the White Star
Line.
Captain Smith had collided with a
Royal Navy cruiser when he had
been captain of the Olympic.
Three million rivets held the
sections of the Titanic together.
Research shows that they were
made of sub-standard iron.
When the Titanic hit the iceberg,
the force of the impact caused
the heads of the rivets to break.
Competition for Atlantic
passengers was fierce and the
White Star Line wanted to show
that it could make a 6 day
crossing. The Titanic could not
afford to slow down if it was
going to achieve a 6 day crossing.
Bruce Ismay, managing director
of the White Star Line, was on
board the Titanic. He may have
put pressure on the Captain to
maintain the speed of the ship.
Many people believed that the
Titanic was unsinkable because it
had 16 watertight compartments.
The Titanic’s watertight
compartments did not reach as
high as they should have done.
The White Star Line cut down on
their size to increase space for
1st Class passengers.
Why did the Titanic sink and why did so many die?
If Thomas Andrews, the ship’s
designer, had insisted on making
the watertight compartments the
correct height then maybe the
Titanic would not have sunk.
Many of the crew and officers of
the Titanic had no experience of
working on large cruise liners.
The Titanic could float if 4
compartments were flooded but
when the iceberg hit 5
compartments were flooded.
The crew did not believe that the
iceberg had caused serious
damage, they believed that the
ship had just scrapped the
iceberg.
The Titanic hit the iceberg at
11.40 pm. The order to launch
the lifeboats wasn’t given until
12.30 pm.
Many of the passengers believed
the Titanic was unsinkable and
refused to leave the ship.
The first lifeboats to be launched
were sent away half full. The
first boat could carry 65 people
but had only 28 people on board.
The Titanic could carry 48
lifeboats but the White Star Line
ordered that on the maiden
voyage it should only carry 20.
This meant that only 52% of the
people on board would have a
place in a lifeboat.
The White Star Line had provided The final iceberg warning was
the amount of lifeboats
from the Californian. At 11.15
recommended under British law.
pm the radio operator on the
Californian switched off his radio
and went to bed. Just after
midnight a member of the crew
reported seeing rockets fired into
the sky from a big liner. Captain
Lord, captain of the Californian,
took no action because he
believed the Titanic was having a
party and using fireworks.