2B
What has been going on in 2B?
The wreck is RMS Titanic. As the team were sending their cameras down to look around the wreck, they needed to find out about the ship. As part of their staff training they have discovered what Titanic looked like inside and outside, what facilities were like for the different passengers, where it was travelling from and to and what happened to the ship.
The team have been asked by Professor Yoshimi from the University of Hawaii to investigate whether a shipwreck within the Midnight Zone of the Atlantic Ocean is a living wreck. This means that living creatures have made it their home. They have been using many scientific skills. They have been measuring creatures, tallying numbers of creatures, sorting and classifying things found in the ocean and creating labelled diagrams.
The team had discovered a large whale carcass on the ocean floor. It seemed to be attracting lots of different creatures. After 18 months they returned to find just the skeleton and some tube worms.
A team was needed to monitor the Midnight Zone in the Atlantic Ocean. Some people had had previous experience of working in the ocean when they part of the Big Ocean Clean Up team. The team have some large tanks containing bioluminescent creatures and angler fish.
Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary about the Great Fire of London. Maybe other Londerers did the same. They would have written with quills and ink. What did they witness?
The team needed to know all about fire fighting in 1666. The made sure they had fire hooks and practised using water squirts. Finally they made chains from the water source, the River Thames to the fire.
The houses were so close together and. the dry, windy weather all helped the fire to spread north of the River Thames.
As the fire raged, local people found a message from King Charles II. He needed a team of people prepared to help fight the fire.
On Pudding Lane there was a baker. It is believed that the Great Fire of London began in the bakery. Mr Lucas demonstrated how to make bread and we all baked a bread roll.
London was very different in 1666.
In 1666 King Charles II was watching a fire from the windows of the Palace of Whitehall. In 2023 we were surprised by a visit from the local fire brigade.
Around the great hall hung portraits of other members of the royal family.
In 1666 some villagers from Eyam travelled to London. They had gone to inform King Charles II about how the villagers had quarantined themselves and prevented the plague spreading to other villages.
The conservationists discovered a large branch on the moor. It had once been part of a tree. Now it was dead on the floor. They looked closely. This dead wood was a perfect microhabitat for lots of creatures.
People carried bundles of herbs and flowers. It kept away the awful smell of the sick and dying people. They also thought it would protect them from the illness.
The story began in 1665, in the Derbyshire village of Eyam, A tailor had ordered cloth from London. It arrived by horse and cart and was received by George Viccars, the tailor's new apprentice. George hung the damp cloth to dry by the fire. Soon George was feeling unwell. No-one knew that the cloth was covered in fleas carrying the deadly plague virus. George was the first victim of the plague in Eyam. It spread through the village.
The tree near the grave stones had heard many voices over the years. The words had been caught in the leaves. It was almost as if the team could hear the voices from the past. This woman had lost her family to a terrible disease.
The conservationists watched as another team explored the land beneath the stones. Bones were found.
The conservationists did a lot of observing in the moorland habitat. On one trip they discovered some stones beneath the grasses and heathers. The stones seemed to be three gravestones dated 1665
The conservationists noticed that something was destroying the bilberry bushes. Their wildlife cameras collected footage of deer eating the bushes. They needed to fence the bushes to protect them.
The team looked at the 3D map of the local area. They could see the village of Eyam, the hills, the valley, the woodland, the fields, the moor and the streams
The soil on the moor is only rich enough to grown certain plants. Bilberry bushes like to grow there and they are important food source for billberry bees.
Eyam is in the Peak District. The village is in the valley and the moor is on the hill. The dark green on our 3D map represents the wood, the light green is the fields and the purple is the heather on the moor. Can you see the streams, the houses in the village and the church?
We can build numbers in many different ways!
It was going to be a busy day for the team. Hopeful they had slept well, before they got ready and then travelled on the coach up into the Peak District.
The walk up from Eyam Village to the moor took the team along a stream, through a wood and across some fields. Could we recognise and sequence the natural features?
The team of conservationists were busy measuring, exploring and observing the wildlife
What did we find on our school grounds? Lots of great observations!
