Titanic

April 15, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the fabled ocean liner that held such great promise in the early 20th century. Constructed over the course of three years, and at a cost of $7.5 million (over $170 million in today’s dollars), the ship was heralded as an emblem of the modern age – fast, outsized, and unsinkable.

Although the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is a perfect reason to bring the topic into your classroom, doing so is easier said than done. As spring arrives, many teachers are scrambling to cover all the topics they are required to cover by the end of the year. Breaks and standardized testing take up even more class time, so adding in an entirely new and unrelated topic is a luxury most teachers can’t afford. In a perfect world, teachers would be able to intertwine the topic within the subjects they are trying to teach before the end of the year. In the real world, it takes a long time to integrate a new topic into tried and true lessons, and it’s easier to stick to the lessons from previous years.