The Skyscraper Museum is devoted to the study of high-rise building, past, present, and future. The Museum explores tall buildings as objects of design, products of technology, sites of construction, investments in real estate, and places of work and residence. This site will look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.
LESSON & RESOURCES
INDEX:
Lesson 1: What is a Skyscraper
Lesson 2: Designing a Skyscraper
Lesson 3: Building a Skyscraper
Lesson 4: Changes in a City over Time
Recommended Reading
ESB Run Up
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Lesson 1: What is a Skyscraper?
Students inductively discover the characteristics of skyscrapers as they complete a "Skyscraper Detectives" activity that invites them to examine an array of the Museum's archival images.
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Lesson 2: Designing a Skyscraper
Students examine archival photographs of the Empire State Building site and explore its construction. Through analysis of primary source documents, students develop a sense of the scope of skyscraper construction.
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Lesson 3: Building a Skyscraper
A variety of exploration stations allow students to explore principles crucial to skyscraper construction. They concurrently learn the terminology and parts of a skyscraper, and practice using these terms with images.
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Lesson 4: Changes in a City over Time
Students practice close looking skills using images of the Manhattan skyline from three different time periods. They infer the likely changes that transpire in a city over time, and create their own imagined skyline from a time period either in the future or the past.
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Recommended Reading (K-12)
Books selected by The Skyscraper Museum enhance and enrich student learning about skyscrapers, complete with suggested activities.
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ESB Run-Up (4-6)
Students learn about the real, vertical race to the top of the Empire State Building and then use a chart of race results to solve an array of challenging mathematics problems. This engaging activity can be used in a single class period or a take-home activity.
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COMING SOON:
Mathematics Trail of Skyscrapers (K-12)
In this interdisciplinary project, students apply their historical and structural knowledge of skyscrapers to generate real-life mathematical problems. Using original research and innovative presentation methods, groups create a map annotated with mathematics problems to share with classmates within their school and across the country.
Culminating Literacy Projects (2-6)
The Museum offers seven projects that can function as a culmination or evaluation of the four lessons. These tasks are easily adapted and rubrics are included for including narrative writing, poetry, and a city-planning project.
Supplementary Word Problems (2-6)
Multiple word problems enable students to practice a range of mathematical concepts within skyscraper themes and terminology.
