Reconstructing the “Hatch Incident” of Gus Grissom’s Mercury Flight
3:13
Grades: 6 - 12
Video Description: Biographer George Leopold describes the process of research and writing he used to “set the story straight” on the “hatch door blowing incident” that was part of Gus Grissom’s splash down and recovery after his Mercury flight.
Type of Video: Segment*
Unique Video ID: Writing-7**
Quick Ideas for Using the Video:
- Use the video in conjunction with an activity that has students engaging in descriptive writing. Have students select a specific historic incident of their choice that they research and write about as a story for people unfamiliar with the incident. As part of their presentation or in an accompanying essay, have students explain how they went about writing the story as they did. How did they determine what parts of the incident to leave out, what to keep in, how to describe them in an interesting and yet accurate way, etc. Compare the student’s story to news articles of the incident.
*Segment videos are short excerpts edited from interviews or interactive programs that offer flexible and differentiated ways to use the rich content included in the full-length conversation.
**The unique Video ID can be used to quickly locate a single video in the ET collection. This search function is designed to let teachers assign students to watch a specific video and have only that video appear as a search result. Just click on Search and choose “By Video ID.” Then type in the Video ID as it appears above. Be sure to include the dash.
