Discovering Your Family

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Introduction

Every person in this world has their own history. Most people do not spend a great deal thinking about the origins of their family. If someone were to ask you about your family's history, what would you say? Would you be able to state the different cultures that are included in your family or discuss some of the important events that shaped your family's history? Get ready, for you are about to take a fantastic voyage through history in order to find your Roots.

The Task

Your task is to discover your family's history. In order to complete your mission you will need to:

Learn about geneology and different strategies for discovering your family's past.
Conduct research on your family.
Design a detailed family tree.
Decribe three people that you find particularly interesting and write a one page document about each of these individuals.
Find some type of image of these subjects.
Scan these images into a computer.
Morph yourself into these different individuals.
Embed the movies into a ClarisWorks document
Students present their essays and play their morph movies for the class. Each student should also be able to give an overview of his or her family history and the important events that have shaped the family.

Resources

Students will be directed to look at sites which discuss and explain geneology. Ideas for gathering information are listed at these sites. Here the authors explain how they discovered their past and the mistakes they made along the way. Several good examples include:

Geneolgy History and National History Page
Geneology
Geneology Home Page

Process

Step 1. Each student will be asked to brainstorm about how families have changed over the years. The instructor will then ask students to share their ideas with the class. The subject of geneology and research methods will be discussed. Students will work in teams of two searching selected sites on the web to see how others have collected and organized their data.
Step 2. Students will begin collecting their own data, using whatever means possible. The instructor will help guide the research process. Once the data has been collected, the students will oganize their data into the form of a family tree.
Step 3. Students will focus their research on three selected individuals from their family tree.
They are to write a one page essay about each individual, with attention to events that shaped this person's life. The students may choose any subjects that they wish, but they must be in different generations.
Step 4. Students will attempt to obtain images of the individuals that they are writing about. The images will be scanned into the computer. Students will also take pictures of themselves and transfer them into the computer.
Step 5. Students will make Morph Movies of ecah of the individuals written about. In these movies the students will melt into the image of one of their ancestors. The movie will be embeded within the ClairsWorks document.
Step 6. Students will then make a presentation to the class about their findings and draw conclusions about their data from their family history.

Learning Advice

Students who have little or no knowledge of their personal family, should find a teacher or close friend to research. Each student should try to obtain as much information as possible for each family reseached. All information gathered should be documented. Students should look at the web sites presented on this page for examples and ideas for carrying out the research. Students will be encouraged to speak with as many family members, in order to obtain information and contacts to help them complete their project.

Evaluation

Students will be required to present their projects to other students and teachers involved with the project. The students will also be required to complete a quick question and answer session with the panel in which they will have to explain their research methods and outcomes. The panelist will determine how well the student is able to grasp the concepts presented within the lesson. This will also serve as preparation for their unit presentation.

Conclusion

Each participant should be able to have a greater appreciation of their own family and some of the events that shaped that family. Look and see how your family has evolved over the years. How is your family similar or different than the other student's families? How do you think your family or families in general will change in the future?

Last updated April 28, 1996. Return to the

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