Brief Description

Create a PowerPoint presentation of Abraham's family tree -- or use the lesson to create an organizational chart of your own!

Objectives

Students will use PowerPoint to create an organizational chart in showing the connections between ancient Israelites and modern-day Arabs.

Keywords

cause and effect, family tree, organizational chart, Israelites, PowerPoint, technology

Materials Needed

Computers with Internet access and PowerPoint software, a Bible or an online source of Biblical genealogy, such as http://bible.ort.org/bible/genealogy/geneology.html Navigating the Bible Genealogy

Lesson Plan

• Have students open up a new PowerPoint presentation and choose 'Blank Presentation' from the options. Under 'Format' on the task bar, have them choose 'Slide Layout,' and then 'Organizational Chart.'

• The chart starts with 3 boxes across the top. To delete boxes, place the cursor on top of the box and hit 'Backspace.' To add boxes, click one of the 'Options' at the top and drag the box icon to the correct place on the slide.

• To change box color, highlight the box, then go to the menu bar at the top and find 'Boxes.' Pull down the menu and find 'Color.' You can do the same with the text inside the boxes. Just pull down 'Text/Font' on the menu bar and find 'Color.'

• If all necessary boxes won't fit on the same line (This occurs when you try to put in the 12 tribes of Israel, under Jacob.), the technique above can also be used to change the font or font size in the boxes.

• To make a key at the bottom of the chart to explain the colors used, select the 'Draw' option under 'View' on the task bar, and draw extra boxes outside the tree.

• Use the capital 'A' to insert text outside the tree or to write in or around the boxes.

• When the chart is complete, go to 'File' and 'Update.' This will put a miniature version of the organizational chart/family tree into the PowerPoint slide.

• To increase viewing size, pull down the '0ption' menu and increase the magnitude of the viewing area.

• After students have entered all the necessary information, have then print the charts to use as study guides.

• The same kind of chart can be used to show connections between monarchies in England or Egypt, between authors' writing styles, between types of verb conjugations, and even between math theorems.

Assessment

Provide students with a completed tree with some names deleted and have them fill in the missing names.