A tightly structured series of activities on the reasons why the Mary Rose mysteriously sank which incorporates:
a. A history mystery using evidence discovered in the last few years
b. Evaluation of a website
c. Writing a better website explanation with a sense of a KS2 audience.
Pupils work on a history mystery so that they are not too dependent on just one history textbook for their answers. To set up the mystery, cut up the cards provided as Resource Sheet 1. You might decide to limit the number you want to give to lower-attaining pupils but don’t give them less than 6-8 or they will not be able to group or link reasons. With the cards in front of them, and working in groups of no more than 3, pupils have to process the information on the cards to see if they can form any groupings. Then issue a set of 6 sticky notes to each group of 3 and see if they can find a heading for each group. Ask the pupils to think which of the various reasons was the most important in their opinion.
By way of extension for the more able, try to engage them
