BACKGROUND: Students will conduct research into the inner workings of a Department on the President's Cabinet and give a Press Conference, playing the role of A NEW Secretary of that Department.

PROCEDURE: Below are the 15 current Cabinet Departments.  Students will complete basic research regarding one Department, beginning at the website:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/cabinet (this used to be a GREAT source of information regarding the President's Cabinet, with links to the department, the Secretaries, etc. Apparently, under Mr. Trump, this website is not as important, as much of the original information and links is GONE.)

or at this excellent source for Department information: allgov.com. (This; however, is a GREAT source of information, which will give you info about the SEAL of your department, the INDEPENDENT AGENCIES, the current issues, etc.)

Students are strongly encouraged to use additional resources on this project. Remember, this is a RESEARCH project. You will NOT be able to find all of the issues that you are to address in this project on a single webpage neatly arranged for your consumption!

Each student will be RECORDING a short speech as if they are the THE NEW SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT. Each student should be prepared to address the class (through the use of their video) regarding their Department and be able to give information and answer questions, as needed.

REQUIRED ELEMENTS: Below is the order of the items that MUST be addressed in the press conference:

1. State the Name and home state of the FORMER Secretary of the Cabinet Department. 
• (Start by saying, “Hello, I am Paul Burkhard of Colorado, Secretary of the Department of Violence and Urban Gaming. I would like to thank former Secretary Donald Schweeble of Utah for his years of great service to this fine Department...)
2. A summary of the duties and activities of the Cabinet Department.
   • (discuss this by saying: "At the Department of _____________, we have a number of important responsibilities, including _______________(explain in a sentence), ________________(explain in a sentence), etc." You should be relating AT LEAST 3-6 separate duties of your Department.
3. Discuss AT LEAST ONE OR TWO INDEPENDENT AGENCIES OF YOUR DEPARTMENT THAT WE MIGHT HAVE HEARD OF, SUCH AS THE FBI, NASA, ICE, etc.
• (cover this in your speech by saying: "As you know, we have a number of independent agencies working with our Department, such as the _____________, which does _________________ and the _____________ which is in charge of _________________."
4. Description of two of the MAIN current problems or issues facing the Department in detail. Also discuss how these issues are being/will be addressed by the Department.
   • (address this by saying: There are a couple of critical issues that this department is currently facing. Our primary concern is____________________________________. We are also concerned about _________________________________.) Please make sure that you are discussing MAIN issues, not just a couple of current news stories!)
5. Conclusion of Speech: Wrap up your information and ask for questions:
• (close by saying something like: I look forward to my new role as head of the Department of ____________ and look forward to tackling ISSUE 1 and ISSUE 2. Thank you for your time!)
6. Include an image of the SEAL OF YOUR DEPARTMENT in your video presentation! You can open with this image, have it behind you when filming, show it to the camera printed on a piece of paper, whatever works for you!

Each student will write a SPEECH that will cover all of the above items. This speech will include a cover sheet, and be written using proper grammar, punctuation and spelling, as well as a citations page. The speech, when you record it for viewing, should last between 2-3 minutes in length.

PRESENTATION OF MATERIAL: You can record this video in any method that you wish, including the use of a cell phone, video camera, etc. If you do not have access to such resources, please see Mr. B., he can help you. You are encouraged to use any video editing APPS or programs that you wish. Mr. B. has a basic video editor available on all Tech Lab computers, if necessary.

Do you have to be sitting at a desk or behind a podium during your presentation? No, although you could. If you want to do your speech walking down the street or standing on your head, you can. You can even try to be funny. HOWEVER, you MUST DELIVER ALL OF THE REQUIRED INFORMATION in your presentation!

Please make sure that your FINAL VERSION of this video is in a format that we can watch in class- .mp4, .mov, etc.

ASSIGNMENTS: The Fifteen Cabinet Departments and the assigned students are below:

DEADLINE AND SUBMISSION: This project will be due at the end of class on THURSDAY, JANUARY 30th. We will start showing these presentations in class on that Friday. You can SHARE your video with Mr. B. online, you can email him a link, you can give him a flash drive, you can SAVE your movie to the BLUE DRIVE, just make sure that he has your finished work for presentation and grading!

GRADING: This is a relatively large project, and will be worth 200 points for completion (as many points as our recent exam).  Students will be graded equally on:

1. The quality of the information that they teach the class. Demonstration of the SEAL of the department. Inclusion of all required elements regarding Independent Agencies, Issues of the Department, etc. (100 points),
2. The quality of their written and video taped speech, including the content of the speech and the grammar, puncuation and spelling (100 points).

Students will have some in-class time for working on the project, but probably not enough to complete the project by the due date.