1.1 Lockdown at Trump International Hotel www.NICERC.

org

Teacher Notes: Lesson Objectives

This is the first of five lessons in this module, to be run in sequential order. In this lesson,
students will receive their first briefing, consisting of documents, from which students will
have to begin constructing a theory of what happened, who did it, why, and what should
be done in response.
At the end of this module, students will be expected to compose a response using evidence
from the documents to make their argument. Students must justify why they think their
response is the most effective way to respond to the incident.

Lesson Skills
• Research and analysis
• Critical thinking
• Teamwork
• Written and oral communication

Lesson Materials
It is suggested that you • Documents: One copy of Briefing One Folder per group
skim the documents to • Marker boards/posters/sticky notes to illustrate timelines
familiarize yourself with
the contents and to help
distinguish between the
needed documents verus
the “white noise”.

This material is based upon work

supported by the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security under Grant
Award Number, 2013-PD-127-
000001, Modification #2.

1
Copyright © 2016 Cyber Innovation Center All Rights Reserved. Not for Distribution.
 1.1 Lockdown at Trump International Hotel www.NICERC.org

SUMMARY
Begin by dividing the class into groups of 4-6, or keep the class together as one group if
your class is smaller. Each group will play the role of a Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) team tasked with investigating an ongoing incident at Trump International Hotel in
Washington, D.C. On 22 August 2017, DHS was informed that Trump International was
in complete lockdown. Every room in the hotel has been locked, leaving guests, employees,
and other visitors stuck in place.
In each of first four lessons, students will be given an intelligence briefing, consisting of
documents and data representing what DHS currently knows about the situation. Teams
must figure out what happened to cause the lockdown at Trump International Hotel, why
it happened, and finally, each team must decide what should be done in response to the
incident.

LESSON CONTENT
In this first briefing, students are given background information in India, Pakistan, and
their history of conflict over the disputed Kashmir region. Students learn that heads of
state for India and Pakistan are meeting at Trump International Hotel to sign the Taj Mahal
Peace Accords. Because this peace deal involves several warring factions and years of bitter
acrimony, many political activists and organizations also descended on the hotel to protest.
These documents paint a chaotic picture, but students should begin the task of figuring out
what happened by combing through the sources for clues. Encourage students to make a
list of names, key figures, and groups. Students should also begin constructing a timeline
of events.

Discussion Questions
• Why do both India and Pakistan claim the Kashmir region as their own?
• Describe what Taj Mahal Peace Accords hope to accomplish, and who is expected to
sign the treaty?
• What do we know about security at Trump International Hotel?

2
Copyright © 2016 Cyber Innovation Center All Rights Reserved. Not for Distribution.