1. Use Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint to create the timeline on your computer. (See instructions below)
OR
2. Draw or design your own timeline and take a picture, saving the file on your computer as .jpg or .gif (note, the file cannot be larger than 1 MB in size)

3. The timeline must include the following events, with the correct dates:
a. Reign of Israelite King David
b. Golden Age of Athens
c. Reign of Caesar Augustus
d. Fall of Rome

4. Select at least six additional items to include in your timeline.
a. You may begin your timeline with a civilization that began before the reign of King David, but please note that Creation should not count as one of your six dates.
b. Do not include any dates after the Fall of Rome.
5. Choose events, people or developments that are most significant for understanding the development of Western Civilization. You may include elements from Biblical history, but make sure that you include them for both their theological significance and their specific contribution to the foundations of Western Civilization. 
a. For ex: The reign of Israelite King David is significant to Western Civilization because the Messiah came to mankind through the blood line of David, and this King of the Jews is the basis for Christianity, a formative religion in the forming of Western Europe. 
6. Make sure the timeline has a discernible chronological scale indicating the relative passage of time. It should also be visually attractive and professional enough to be used for a presentation in a small-group setting.
 
Creating a Timeline on the Computer:
You may use the following links to learn techniques for creating timelines using Microsoft Word or Office Excel, or you may choose to create your timeline in a Power Point presentation or on paper.
Please note that your timeline should still show a scale of time passage unlike some of the exs at the links provided. These links should not serve as templates for the project but rather tutorials for building the lines and arrows. If your events are evenly spaced, as they are in the exs on this site, they will be considered chronological charts rather than timelines and points will be deducted (see rubric):
Creating a Timeline in Microsoft Word
Creating a Timeline using Microsoft Office Excel

Part 2: The Rationale
1. Use Microsoft Word to prepare the paper.
2. Follow the Rationale Template for formatting guidelines.
3. For each of the six items you chose to add to the timeline, prepare a paragraph of 150 words each, describeing why it was significant to the development of Western Civilization. 
4. Use the following template for each paragraph:

Item: Date
_____________ was important to the development of Western Civilization because ________. The following sentences of the paragraph, making up the body, should support why the event/item is significant to the development of Western Civilization. Your paragraph should not be simply informative; it should provide a clear argument for why the event is important to the development of Western Civilization. 

5. You should not have more than six paragraphs in the Rationale. If you included more than six items on your timeline, pick only six of them to defend