COMPANY PORTFOLIO / TITANIC RESEARCH

The museum have asked us to bring a portfolio about our company when we visit them so they can examine our credentials! I asked the company members what we might put in a portfolio and we began to recall al the things that we were proud of in the history of the company as well as information like training certificates, job descriptions, ohotographs etc. They were full of lots of ideas and soon began to talk about dives, restorations and other events from our company history. I showed them the folders from the filing cabinet that contained a wide range of information and asked if a group of office workers if they could sort these out and give the appropriate information to the teams concerned. A child who is often on the sidelines has established himself as an important member of the office team - his role being the supervisor of the office noticeboard! His job is to remove or pin up items as he thinks necessary - nobody is allowed to put things onto the noticeboard until he has looked at the information and given them permission - he has really blossomed within this role and takes his job very seriously. At this moment he proudly volunteered to help oraganise and distribute the information.

We also talked about how we would present our information - plastic wallets were chosen to put in papers which would then be presented in a special folder. We then organised ourselves into different teams who discussed the information they would put into the portfolio. The ofice workers gave out relevant documents from which the teams chose samples to present and they also began to produce their own pieces of information, focussing on events that they were really proud about from the past.

The finished portfolio was impressive, containing a range of information about the company ready to present to the museum.

Our next job was to beginto research information about the Titanic so that we can show the museum that we have background knowledge for when we begin to look at the artefacts.
The company members chose to make thier own books of facts. We had some great resources to help us: a great CDRom especially produced for MoE work (given free to all conference delegates!): some excellent websites, particularly www.encyclopedia-titanica.org which has complete paseenger and crew listings with information about each person: some good children's inofrmation books; excerpts from the feature film (carefully censored!) and an interacive CD Rom where the children can dive down in the Nautile to explorea virtual Titanic wreck.

The children are fascinated by the story, particularly the human element, so we will use the passenger and crew list to get into some really deep explorations of the tragedy at a later point. This commission is huge and will definitely take us to the end of the academic year! In the meantime they have put together some great information books to take to the museum and are busy at home doing extra pieces of research. Parents are reporting frenzied Titanic interest! I'm sure that the depth (ha ha!) of their involvement and understanding has been greatly increased by the whole build up of the Salvage Company and all the drama and related tasks that have preceded what is going to be our first commission since we formed the company in September. I'm glad we didn't launch into a commission nearer the beginning of the work as the whole background we have explored together has created such a powerful context from which to begin this new phase of our work. I would really recommend the frame of a Salvage Company / The Titanic to anyone wnting to engage and motivate the children - beats Florence Nightingale hands down!!! (Sorry Florence - nothing personal.)