ASSIGNMENT: This assignment will involve the members of the 113th Congress.  Students must CORRECTLY answer all of the questions below in a professional and easily understood manner. We will also be making graphic representations of this information in the second part of this assignment. I recommend using the search term DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE 113TH CONGRESS in your research.

THE QUESTIONS:

1. What is the party breakdown of both houses?
2. What is the average age of Senators? Representatives?
3. How many Congressmen are millionaires?
4. How many congress members have no education degree beyond a high school diploma?
5. What is the average length of service for the House?
6. Who has the longest current service in the House? For how long?
7. Who had the longest service in the House in history?
8. What is the THREE most popular religions of Congress members?
9. How many members of the House are women? What is the percentage?
10. How many members of the House are African American? What is the percentage?
11. How many members of the House are Latino? What is the percentage?
12. How many members of the House are gay? What is the percentage?
13. How many members have served in the military?

THE COMPARISON NUMBERS: As a point of contrast and a demonstration of progress, please answer questions 1, 9, 10, 11 and 12 above using the demographic statistics of the 89th Congress in 1965 (50 years ago). You will be creating graphics that contrast the difference between Congress of today and Congress of 50 years ago.

GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION OF DATA: Please use any tools or skills that you have to REPRESENT GRAPHICALLY the data in Questions 1, 10, 11 and 12 on a digital document. I STRONGLY SUGGEST USING A GOOGLE SPREADSHEET FOR THIS PART OF THE PROJECT. Students need to be accurately displaying data of significance regarding the Congress of today and that of 50 years ago. Any comparison or contrast that is backed up by the numbers in your graph or chart will be acceptable.

THE PARAGRAPH: To complete this assignment, students will need to write a PARAGRAPH that explains something about the difference between the demographics of the 88th Congress and the 113 Congress (or any other demographic data which you choose to research regarding Congress.) 5th Period students could also include data regarding the general population of the country, as well. Please PRINT your paragraph, with your graphic, chart or table included and submit it for grading, along with the basic answers to the questions above.

I highly recommend using GOOGLE DOCS tools (DRAWING, SPREADSHEET, PRESENTATION) for your presentation. You could also use Microsoft EXCEL (for the chart making capabilities) or Microsoft POWERPOINT (for the shape making capabilities) or Microsoft WORD (for table making capabilities), as well. Make sure to give your charts/graphs titles and to label each minority category and the two time periods in question. PLEASE PRINT YOUR FINAL GRAPHIC PRODUCT.

GRADING: Questions will be graded for accuracy. Paragraphs and Graphic Representations will be judged on accuracy, correlation between paragraph statement and graphics, visual appeal and use of digital resources, as well as the ease of which information is imparted.