Teacher's Guide to the Texas Almanac, 2000-2001

Book excerpt: Like the Roman god Janus, this millennium-spanning edition of the Texas Almanac has one face looking back and the other looking forward. Features in this special 2000-2001 edition highlight Texas during the last century and earlier, as well as provide information on the institutions and industries that will carry Texas into the future. This highly respected Texas resource contains the latest information on such topics as: the natural environment (geology; rivers, lakes and aquifers; plant and animal life; endangered species: soil types; and weather); demographic data and a detailed road map for each of Texas' 254 counties; lists of state and national parks and historic sites; an astronomical calendar; details of the 1998 elections; names of elected and appointed federal, state, and local government officials; business and transportation statistics: minerals; population; agriculture; health statistics: education: and culture and the arts. The Almanac is the handiest source for such Texas information as the words to the state song, the pledge to the Texas flag, and the text of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Special features in this edition include: -- a new, concise history of the fabled Texas Rangers, who have at times in their history been adored as courageous white-hatted heroes and at others been reviled as corrupt, jack-booted bigots; -- a cultural history of oil in Texas -- how black gold transformed Texans' lives, even those who never worked on an exploration crew and never cashed a royalty check; -- a peek into the fascinating, cutting-edge research being done by San Antonio's fifty-two-year-old Southwest Research Institute; -- a history of theUniversity Interscholastic League, with the names of winning schools in every contest, both academic and athletic, from 1985 through 1999; -- and, as a special millennium gift to historians and genealogists, a list of more than fourteen thousand Texas place names and their counties, including more than 5,800 existing cities, town and communities, as well as thousands of others that no longer exist. The Texas Almanac Teacher's Guide is a hundred-page professionally written teaching tool to help teachers use this gem of Texas information in the classroom, with suggested interdisciplinary activities based on information found in the 2000-2001 edition of the Almanac. An accompanying chart tells educators which lessons correspond to TAAS and TEKS objectives. Students use the Almanac to complete the assignments, which include questions, puzzles and team research projects.