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Lesson Plan Four: Surveillance to Data Mining: the
Gathering of Information.
11th & 12th Grade
2 class periods and 1 homework assignment
Standards Compliance
Introduction.
CA Standard: Writing 1.7Use systematic strategies to
organize and record
information (e.g., anecdotal
scripting, annotated
bibliographies).
From 1934 -1955, Harry Bridges was under investigation and
surveillance because he was accused of being a communist.
After the attacks on the World Trade Center, many people, both
citizens and non-citizens, were also under surveillance to
determine if they were terrorists. In both instances, some of
these practices were illegal, but were seen by government
officials as necessary to protect America.
CA Standard: Writing 2.1Write fictional,
autobiographical, or
biographical narratives:
 Narrate a sequence
of events and
communicate their
significance to the
audience.
 Locate scenes and
incidents in specific
places.
 Describe with
concrete sensory
details the sights,
sounds, and smells
of a scene and the
specific actions,
movements,
gestures, and
feelings of the
characters; use
interior monologue to
depict the
characters' feelings.
 Pace the
presentation of
actions to
accommodate
temporal, spatial,
and dramatic mood
changes.
 Make effective use of
descriptions of
appearance, images,
shifting perspectives,
and sensory details.
Objective.
Students will investigate the methods and technology used in
the surveillance of Harry Bridges and other individuals during
the mid 20th century. They will then consider government
surveillance since 9/11 with its far more sophisticated
technology and research the practice of “data mining” as
practiced by commercial investigation companies.
Tools Required:
Computer, Internet access, printer.
Vocabulary.
Data mining has become one of the key features of many
homeland security initiatives. Often used as a means for
detecting fraud, assessing risk, and product retailing, data
mining involves the use of data analysis tools to discover
previously unknown patterns and relationships in large data
sets. In the context of homeland security, data mining can be a
potential means to identify terrorist activities, such as money
transfers and communications, and to identify and track
individual terrorists themselves, such as through travel and
immigration records. Questions that may be considered include
the degree to which government agencies should use and mix
commercial data with government data, whether data sources
are being used for purposes other than those for which they
were originally designed, and possible application of the Privacy
Act to these initiatives. (Adapted from the website for the
Federation of American Scientists.)
www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL31798.pdf
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Surveillance to Data Mining: Day One
Introductory Activity
5-10 minutes
Pose the following questions to your students: “Which web sites do you use as social
media sites – Facebook, etc.? Do you like everyone knowing what you are thinking
and feeling, or do you restrict access to parts of your personal sites? How do you
decide how much access to allow?” Allow students to journal an answer for five
minutes, and then record their responses on a blackboard or large piece of chart
paper.
Mini Lesson
10 minutes
Ask the students if they can identify ways in which information is gathered about a
person. Give them two examples: through a person’s use of credit cards in a store and
through buying things online. Explain that companies pay to get information about a
person’s buying habits as a way of targeting potential new customers. Also explain
that companies can find out where they live, how much money is in the household,
where they shop or go to a gym or a church, and many other personal habits. This is
often called Data Mining. Lead a short discussion on how they feel about this.
Now tell them that they are going to download an MP4 file about government
surveillance of labor leader Harry Bridges. Ask them to think about similarities and
differences between the ways that information was gathered then and now.
Individual Research
30 minutes
Now have the students download the MP4 file at:
http://theharrybridgesproject.org/lesson4.html
Have them watch the footage and/or listen to the voices.
Print and hand out Student Worksheet: Data Mining (page 3) for students to use in
their Individual Research, instructing them to consider the questions using the
indicated web sites and to make notes that they will use in their homework
assignment.
Conclusion
5 minutes
Have the students come back together as a group. Ask them what they learned about
surveillance in the mid 20th century and how it has become more sophisticated today.
What are the most effective ways of gathering information today that they found from
the websites? Record their responses on a blackboard or large piece of chart paper
and have the students do the same for reference tonight. Explain to students that
they will have the opportunity tonight to write their own opinion on data mining
based on their research today. Print and hand out Student Homework:
Surveillance to Data Mining (page 4).
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Name: _______________________________________
Date: __________________________________
Student Worksheet:
Data Mining
For each question, look for answers at the recommended
websites; or better yet, find your own websites and
share them! Write 3-4 sentences answering each question
based on what you discover in these websites.
 How did the FBI gather information about people they
considered dangerous in the mid 20th century?
Spybusters
New Yorker Article About Bridges
COINTELPRO
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
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 What are some of the techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National
Security Agency (NSA) to gather information today?
NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls
Computer Surveillance by CIA?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
 What is Data Mining and what kind of information does it uncover?
Data Mining: What is Data Mining?
Data Mining: Where Legality and Ethics Rarely Meet
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
 Who is tracking information about you and how do they do it?
Does What Happened on Facebook stay on Facebook
Who Knows You Better: Your Credit Card Company or Your Spouse?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
If you have time, check out other pages on these sites or find your own sites as well.
If you discover websites that helped in your research, send them to us at
ianruskin@theharrybridgesproject.org and say “Lesson Plan Sites” in the subject line.
Also let us know if any of the sites that we have supplied have shut down. Include your
name and your school’s name and we will add your information to the Education Project!
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Name: ____________________________________
Date: _____________________________________
Student Homework:
Surveillance to Data Mining
Imagine that you have been hired to write a story for
a blog site about the amount of information that can
be extracted from a person’s credit card records.
Write a 250 word article and include at least one
comparison to information gathering in the last
century. Be sure to back up any opinion that you
have with thoughtful reasoning. If you need more
room, attach another sheet of paper.
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Surveillance to Data Mining: Day Two
Introductory Activity
5 minutes
Explain that today the students are going to share their essays with each other in
small groups and then discuss with the class what they have learned from their
research and writing. Ask them whether it was easy or difficult to write the essay,
and what helped or hindered them.
Group Activity
20 minutes
Have the students break up into groups of 4 or 5 and read their essays to each
other. Choose a student in each group to act as a recorder who will make notes
about the similarities and differences of the points and opinions in the essays.
Then have each recorder read their notes to the class.
Teacher Led Discussion
15-20 minutes
Record these notes on a blackboard or large piece of chart paper in two columns –
their opinions and what their opinions are based on.
Lead a discussion about what they have learned, using some of the following
questions:








What surprised you the most about your research?
Do you think that most people are aware of data mining?
What are the benefits of this kind of information gathering, and who benefits?
Is this an invasion of our privacy?
Could data mining help to keep America safe?
Who should have the power to decide how much information to gather?
Will this research change the way you do anything?
Did you find any other useful web sites?
Conclusion
5 minutes
Explain that students today are growing up in a world that is saturated with
information, especially through the internet and mobile devices. You might want to
read them all or part of Student Homework: Read “The Law of Accelerating
Returns” (page 6). Or tell them that Kurzweil and others theorize that technology is
now doubling every ten years.
Explain that it is important to remember that this massive increase in technology
and information flow will most likely have both positive and negative effects on us,
and one way to help ensure that it’s mostly positive is to be aware of who might
have access to our private information and what we can do to protect it.
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Student Homework:
Read “The Law of Accelerating Returns”
The Law of Accelerating Returns
by Ray Kurzweil
An analysis of the history of technology shows that
technological change is exponential, i.e. it increases
faster and faster. So we won't experience 100 years of
progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like
20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). The
"returns," such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness,
also increase exponentially. There's even exponential
growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few
decades, machine intelligence will surpass human
intelligence, leading to The Singularity -- technological
change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture
in the fabric of human history. The implications
include the merger of biological and non-biological
intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and
ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in
the universe at the speed of light.
TEACHER’S GUIDE: HOMEWORK RUBRIC
Score
Development
Organization
of Position
Use of
Language
Sentence
Structure
1
No plausible
position is
taken on the
topic; severely
lacking in
examples,
reasons
and/or
evidence
Disorganized;
little or no
focus;
incoherent
2
Position on
topic is
unclear or
extremely
limited;
inappropriate
examples or
reasons
Poor use of
Poorly
language;
Frequent
organized;
indicates very problems
lacks focus;
limited
with
problems with
vocabulary
sentence
coherence or
and poor word structure
flow of ideas
choice
3
4
Position on
topic
demonstrates
critical
thinking skill
applied
inconsistently;
inadequate
examples,
reasons or
evidence
Position on
topic
demonstrates
competent
critical
thinking skill;
example,
reasons and
evidence are
good
Contains
fundamental
vocabulary
mistakes
Severely
flawed
sentence
structure
Displays
Some
Limited in
developing use problems
organization of language; with
and focus;
contains
sentence
demonstrates indications of structure;
lapses in
weak
lacks a
coherence or vocabulary
variety of
flow of ideas and poor word sentence
selection
structures
Generally
organized and Displays
focused;
adequate use
demonstrates of language;
some
vocabulary
coherence
used is
and attention generally
to the flow of appropriate
ideas
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Grammar
and Word
Usage
Grammar
and word
usage are so
poor that
they interfere
with
meaning;
very poor
mechanics
(like
punctuation)
Grammar
and word
usage
mistakes are
frequent and
interfere with
meaning;
poor
mechanics
Contains
many
mistakes in
grammar
word usage
and
mechanics
Good
Contains few
sentence
mistakes in
structure;
grammar,
demonstrates
word usage
some variety
and
of sentence
mechanics
structure
Adapted from the SAT Writing Rubric.
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This Lesson Plan was developed by Ian Ruskin, Director of The Harry Bridges
Project, and Education Consultants Kara Hunter and Karen Mowrer.
Made possible with the generous support of
and many other organizations and individuals.
Thank You!