We were studying Renaissance architecture as part of our world history class, and I was absolutely intrigued with Brunelleschi's Dome which sits on top of the Cathedral of Florence in Italy. Completed in 1436, it is still the largest masonry dome in the world. Engineers to this day are not sure how it was built, though there are several theories.
I have begun to delve a little more into project based learning, and I thought that making geodesic domes would be an interesting study in math, history, and architecture. The students completed these in a little over an hour using just newspapers, tape, staples, and the instructions I found online here.
I was hoping that the completed domes would be large enough for a student or two to actually get inside them, but all eight gentlemen and almost all the girls fit inside their respective domes. And of course, the ladies weren't allowed inside the guys' dome.
