The Astrodome Memories project wants to help teachers engage students in the history of the Dome.
Astrodome Debate: A Learning Unit
Debate the fate of the Astrodome! Teach argument and supporting text evidence while learning about the historic Houston Astrodome. This lesson is geared for high school students in English, Social Studies, or Speech and Debate classes. Hyperlinked resources are listed for students to learn more about the Astrodome while they work as a team to prepare to debate what should happen to the Astrodome. The learning unit could be completed in three to four session and includes essential vocabulary, seven suggested prompts, and the Karl Popper Debate Format instructions. The unit works well as a week-long lesson or can be broken up into stand-alone activities to teach argument, rhetoric, fallacies, and supporting claims with text evidence.
Geometric Patterns and the Astrodome: A Learning Unit
Understand 13th century mathematics in a 20th century historic building that was the premier engineering feat of its time. A brief explanation of the Fibonacci sequence and Phi, or the golden ratio, are included in this learning unit geared toward middle and high school math, social studies, or science classes. Students use what they learn to discover the Fibonacci sequence and golden spiral in historic architectural documents from the history of the Houston Astrodome. This learning unit can be completed in two to three sessions and includes essential vocabulary, questions for consideration, activities, answer guides, and rubrics, as well as TEKS aligned for this lesson.
Decode the Dome: A Learning Unit
Become a cryptologist while learning a little about Houston’s historic Astrodome. Learn how to encrypt and decipher using matrices to send messages about the Houston Astrodome. This lesson is geared toward middle and high school students and can be completed in one to two sessions. The materials presented are appropriate for math and social studies classes. The learning unit includes essential vocabulary, questions for consideration, a brief history of cryptology, encrypting and deciphering activities, fun facts about the Astrodome, and the answer keys for activities. TEKS aligned for this lesson as well as a list of hyperlinked resources are also included in this unit.
This Day in Astrodome History: An Astrodome Memories Learning Unit
Extra! Extra! Read all about it—or, in this case, watch all about it…all about the Astrodome. Tie events in history to a timeline of events at the Astrodome. Students use firsthand historical resources to investigate and then act as the newscaster informing the class of related events in history. Facilitator guide and student instructions guide the class through the learning unit, which can be completed in one to two sessions. It teaches students about newsworthy headlines, and allows them to present in a variety of formats. The unit is TEKS aligned, includes questions for consideration, and essential vocabulary. Printable activities and rubric are included as well as hyperlinked resources to online historical materials.
Scaling the Dome: An Astrodome Memories Learning Unit