Hello! I am Sarah Son and I am a freshmen at Science Leadership Academy. In our English class, we were assigned a project that requires us to choose a specific topic that pulls our interest. I chose animal cruelty for my topic. This topic really stood out to me and spoke to me because I have a connection to this and I think that it is an interesting topic to research. Animals do not have voices, we should speak up for them so that we can make a change and help them since they can’t always defend themselves. The change may be small, but it will mean a lot. I want more people to help and be more aware of this problem!

While doing this research, I learned a lot from these sources. It makes me think harder about what kind of world we live in and it is sad that things like this, animal cruelty, happens every single day. I learned that animal abusers do not even realise that what they are doing is terrible and it is causing pain to animals and people. I also found out that animal abusers are, “five times likely to commit violent crimes against people,” according to this. I hope to figure out what goes inside of an animal abuser’s mind. Why are they doing that? I am hoping to learn more as we go on! Let's make a change.

Annotated Bibliography

I am doing a project where we choose a problem and find a way to let everyone hear about it. I hear many people have chose to do things that affect an area or an event. I wanted to do something else and talk about something that affects people all around the world. I chose Autism because it's something very important and need a lot more support, and people talking about it spread for help. I hope I can help spread the word and have people show their support and love towards kids with Autism so we can embrace it, not run away from it or shun it because it's “weird”.    

I feel very strongly towards this topic because I have Autism and I want people to know about it and help to support it. It something that can really hold children back their whole life because of it’s effect it has on people. A fact I found on a very reliable source called Autism speaks which says Autism is one of the fastest-growing developmental disorders in the U.S. How it works is Autism impacts the normal development of the brain in the areas of social interaction, communication skills, and cognitive function. Individuals with autism typically have difficulties in verbal and nonverbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities and I found this at the national Autism association. A fact I found in Autism society is More than 3.5 million Americans live with an autism spectrum disorder. This is something that hasn’t found a cure as of yet and many have tried to get rid of it in different. Some crazy mothers have tried bleach pills because a long time ago someone said that it worked..which it didn’t it only damaged the baby more and possibly killed a few as well. A very interesting fact I found on quick Autism facts is if one identical twin has autism then there is an 80-90% chance that the other twin will also be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Autism was originally believed to be a form of schizophrenia brought on by a traumatic experience or bad parenting this is not the case. It also costs more than $8,600 extra per year to educate a student with autism. Between 30-50% of people with autism have seizures and this is scary to know about. Scientists are unsure what, if any, environmental triggers may be involved in autism. Beliefs in the late 1990s and early 2000s that vaccines may cause autism have since been disproven through numerous studies. Boys are nearly five times more likely than girls to have autism (And seems fair right?). Autism costs a family $60,000 a year on average that is pretty hard to find that out. I hope my facts help show you how Autism works, how it affects people and how they react to it without understanding it. I plan to use my research to help express my project and what I’m trying to tell about Autism and Autistics.