David Bessler

Legal Research and Writing Senior Project

Proposal

A. ABSTRACT

My name is David Bessler, and I would like to invest my time and effort in creating a

senior project on identity theft. I want to pursue this topic and create a project that educates

others about the dangers of identity theft. I plan on achieving this goal by holding a seminar at

the Advanced Technology Center. Along with my seminar I plan on developing a small game so I

can show people how easy it is to steal someone's identity. Most of the research and actual core

of my study will be reflected in my seminar and I will also have some guest speakers who will be

at my seminar. As of the moment I already have S.A. Ward from the FBI Cyber Crimes Unit

ready to talk on identity theft. His primary duty with the FBI is to handle identity theft cases and

to catch these identity thieves. I plan on also having some victims of identity theft speaking at

this seminar so that they may show my audience how much it has affected their lives. While I

plan on having all of these speakers attend my seminar, I also hope to have a nice broad audience

of people not only my age, but also individuals who are older than me. In regards to the game I

am going to code, I am going to make the objective of the game to try and take as many
identities without getting caught. This is not meant to encourage identity theft, but merely meant

to show how easily someone can take your identity and how often identity theft occurs. I will

records their scores and progress in the game and store it in a database to show the results of my

seminar. I do know that I would like to have Mr. Larry Spruill as my consultant. The questions

which drive my research are as follows:

What type of people do identity thieves look for?

How can your identity be stolen?
Is there anyway that you can prevent your identity from being stolen?
How can you notice if your identity has been stolen?
What do you do if your identity is stolen?
What happens to the identity thief?

These questions will form my paper which I will talk in depth about during my seminar. My

speaking portion during the seminar along with my game shall together create my senior project

on identity theft.

B. LEARNING SKILLS

Enhanced Skills:

Planning
Mangement
Marketing
Communication
Instruction
Coding
Coding a game
Database Management (Certified in Access 2013)

New Skills:

Creating a real time database which records for another program

Mass-producing a game

C. MARKETING PLAN/FACILITIES/AUDIENCE

My target audience for this presentation is young adults about my age and older adults

(around the 45+ range). The biggest reason I want to have some audience members that are about
my age is because we are at vital points in our lives where if we arent careful when we put our

name out there it may come back to bite us. I know that these audience members would feel

more confident knowing what threats to look for in the new world of life they are about to enter.

A vast majority of individuals and couples who are in the 45+ range are always thinking about

their financial security. As we get older we want to know ways we can be more secure and ways

we can protect what we have. An older audience member attending this presentation will not

only be able to learn more about ways they can protect themselves, but they can leave it feeling

safer and more at ease with their finances. The purpose of the seminar is to educate and raise

awareness to these groups of audiences. I plan on advertising my seminar at my local church, at

some members in my community, at school, and online. For my venue I have decided to try and

get the Advanced Technology Center Auditorium. It is a fairly large venue and due to its location

my seminar would appear not only more professional, but it would also be taken more seriously.

A seminar on a college campus in a building titled The Advanced Technology Center will

attract a larger, broader audience.

D. PROJECT STEPS

Step Description Estimated

Time

Proposal Writing out and planning my 2 hours

project

Creating/Pre-Development Storyboarding, drawing/ 10 hours

designing games image, and
planning game development,
interactions, and database
management.

Alpha Phase Developing key game aspects I cannot

which are crucial to the game estimate
functionality
 Beta Phase Touching up/ polishing some No estimate
of the games features and available
making sure it runs smooth

Main Phase Establishing the relation No estimate

between the game and its available
connecting database

Alpha Test My own play through 45 minutes at

most

Beta Test Multiple play throughs by 45 minutes at

others most per
person

Research for seminar Collection of information at least 10

hours

Panel preparation Gather my experts making 2 hours at

sure they are ready most
E. PROJECT DOCUMENTATION

The purpose of creating a game is so that all the documentation is already done

for me. I will be able to document the success of my seminar through the game which will store

its results on my own database. These results will be based on how well players scored in the

game and I plan on having a sign in sheet at my seminar as well to document all who attend. I

also plan on having someone take pictures during the project. In regard to documentation before

the actual project I will be glad to take screenshots of my code as it develops. I will also have

pictures of my database and game to present as well.

F. PROJECT JUSTIFICATION

My senior project is a quality project due to its own uniqueness, and due to its content.

While a majority of the information of my senior project will be given during my seminar and

panel, the actual development of a game is unprecedented in history of senior projects. The panel

will also contain a special agent from the FBI which is also a rare and very useful source. The
development of the game will test my skills in game development and database creation and

manipulation. While I have created games before, this will be the most advanced game I have

ever created, in addition it will also force me to master the ability to incorporate a database in a

game in order to record scores from multiple players at the same time. If done correctly, my goal

is to accomplish the creation of a multiplayer game which can handle not only multiple players at

once, but also keep and record their score while the game runs. The reason the creation of the

game is the biggest stretch for me is because I have organized approximately 15 or so lessons

and seminars throughout my career as a Boy Scout. The panel is a slight stretch as its mainly

about being able to get everyones schedules to coincide with one another. The essential part of

my project which will really push me is the development of the game.

G. PROJECT-PAPER CONNECTION

I understand that the creation of a game may seem like an absurd idea for a project of

identity theft, but I assure the connection is a strong one indeed. While I will give a plethora of

information during my seminar and panel, my game will be playable by multiple people. The

objective of the game is to figure out who is stealing identities. The game will start with one

player being selected as the thief and the rest of the players being civilians. The thief will try

and take as many identities as he/she can and the civilians will need to work together in order to

figure out who the thief is. The game will be comprised of multiple rounds and in each a new

person will be selected as a thief. The point of the game is to show how easy it is to have an

identity stolen and how much effort it can take to try and catch the culprit. This relates back to

the reason I chose this project, because it is so easy to steal an identity and it is so hard to try and

get it back.

H. ACADEMIC HONESTY
 I understand that any academic dishonesty by me on any part on any part of the project

will result in failure of the Senior Project and forfeiture of the Legal Studies Academy Seal on

my High School Diploma. (Senior Project Proposal PDF, Page 10)