The Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time it entered service in 1912. But its sinking at sea during its maiden voyage also made for one of the deadliest maritime disasters in modern history.

It’s for those reasons students at Covenant Academy have selected the Titanic as one of their topics for an upcoming History Day competition at MTSU. The theme of this year’s competition is Triumph and Tragedy.

“It was the biggest ship of its time, but its size also contributed to its downfall,” said Covenant student Vansh Patel.

Covenant is sending several teams to the History Day competition with other themes of Triumph and Tragedy being the atomic bomb, Amilia Earhart, and the USS Indianapolis.

“The Manhattan Project was a success because it led to the creation of the atomic bomb which ended World War II,” said Covenant student Terry Hines. “But it was a tragedy because it resulted in a tremendous loss of life and impacted millions of people with radiation that was left behind.”

The History Day competition is one of the events made available to Covenant students in Rho Kappa, a social studies honor society in its first year at the school. Students will also have the chance to participate in an upcoming Oracle Contest through Rho Kappa where they give speeches up to 10 minutes in length.

“I’ve been so impressed because they’ve taken these projects and they’ve run with them,” said Covenant headmaster Kelly Stewart. “They do all this in their free time and most of them play sports too.”

This year’s Oracle Contest will focus on the U.S. Constitution, specifically the 2nd, 3rd, and 15th amendments.