Hass +

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Ever since year 7, you hear the older kids talking about Hass + and how much fun it is and that you need to “lock in early and do something you find interesting!” Well, that time arrived for me and I decided with my group to build a model of the Titanic. There were many problems that we encountered but as the old saying goes I think we bit off more than we can chew. However, this did not stop us from working late into the night to ensure that we had a project that we were proud of.

This experience taught me about what I enjoy, how I work well in a group as well as how I work not so well in a group. I had creative freedom and not enough time to have such a creative mind. I learnt so much about the Titanic and I think what I learnt is information that will always stick with me.

Included in this project was a structure that we had to follow involving a general topic to choose based on a sub-category of Humanities my group selected Geography, we also had 5 inquiry questions we had to create and answer in relation to our topic and finally we had to present a final product at the Hass + Event.

Here are our findings and presentation.

INQUIRY QUESTIONS

1) How did class divisions aboard the Titanic influence the survival rates of the passengers?

The Titanic’s social hierarchy affected survival rates. First-class passengers, closest to exits, had the highest survival rates due to preferential treatment. Third-Class passengers, on lower decks near the impact site, faced the lowest survival rates due to distance from lifeboats and obstacles. This disaster highlights how social class can impact survival.

• 2) What role did the weather and environmental conditions play in the sinking of the Titanic?

The night when the Titanic sank was calm, cold, and clear. It struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm, and by 2:20 am, the ship had been fully submerged in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. The unusually calm ocean made it difficult to spot icebergs, and temperatures were extremely cold, around -2°C. A high-pressure cell contributed to both the calmness of the water and the coldness of the air that night, making the conditions especially challenging for navigation and survival.

• 3) How did the communication tech compare to the other ships at the time and how did this affect the disaster?

The wireless telegraph on board the Titanic was owned and operated by the Marconi Company, considered to be one of the best. When the ship sunk on the 14th of April 1912 there were 4 other ships around and these all managed to get the alert of the iceberg. This malfunction was due to the overuse and strain of the telegraph. As the technology was relatively new, many of the ships lacked training and experience

• 4) How did the safety regulations on cruises differ before and after the accident?

The crash of the Titanic caused the creation of an organisation called the SOLAS (safety of lives at sea). Another change after the sinking was the Increased maritime patrol in the North Atlantic region, today this can be known as the U.S. Coast Guard, International Ice Patrol. There was also the introduction of the Radio Act of 1912, which put more rules and regulations in place regarding telecommunications at sea. There were also changes in lifeboat regulations as well as building/design regulations put in place.

• 5) Were there any engineering flaws in the Titanic and if so, how did they affect the sinking?

The Titanic was named the “unsinkable ship” as people had so much faith in its design precautions to prevent this, but after further inspection of the design, a few flaws were exposed. The Titanic had 16 watertight compartments built into the ship to help slow down the sinking if needed, however, this did not work as these compartments weren’t tall enough. In addition to this, the doors separating these compartments were built to close and block the water. When building the Titanic manufacturers used a high amount of sulphur during the Titanic’s construction, which resulted in the steel being very fragile and ultimately this may have led to the hull fracturing more easily.

Once we had found out all of the background information about the Titanic, we were curious to find out about the identity of the people aboard the ship when it went down. We found the biographies of people on the ship and we decided to include biography cards in our final presentation, there were around 30 different biographies all with different information and people but formatted in the same way as seen below.

The most time-consuming part of this whole process was building our model of the Titanic. It ended up being rather big, but I believe it made our stall look pretty good…