Project+Evaluation

My main goals for this project were to give people a basic understanding of autism and its many types across the spectrum, help gain awareness for the seriousness of this issue, explain my life story to give others a better understanding of it, explain differences between disorders on spectrum as well as other disorders like ADHD, and help prepare those that may meet somebody who has autism. I met all of these goals very well. My main presentation helped give the general idea of what autism is associated with and also helped explain how important it is to know worldwide. My personal story surely helped them understand more about what is going through our minds when we are living with these disorders. I explained the differences that each of the disorders on the spectrum have compared to other disorders autism is associated with and showed overall that almost everybody will encounter at least one person that has some form of autism.

I went through many sources both on the internet and in books. I also asked quite a few people for their opinions on my paper as well as my general idea of research. I got better at asking for feedback because doing that gave me a better understanding both about what my topic is about and how I live my life both similarly and differently from others with autism. I got help from experts with autism, my parents who have cared for me as an autistic child, and friends who knew a little bit about it and how I acted in the past.

I had to face only a few risks in order to make this project successful. I had to get permission from higher authorities in order to accomplish certain tasks for the project and had to be willing to leave my knowledge vulnerable so I could obtain even more information from my mentor and topic expert. My biggest risk was fighting my biggest fear: public speaking. I had to start talking out loud to more people about my topic to gather awareness for autism and it was still scary. Being autistic myself, I particularly had a harder time speaking up and I got so scared that I almost cried at times but I realized what had to be done and overcame my fear so others could hear me even if I did get embarrassed.

Like mentioned above, one of my biggest satisfactions from the project was being able to conquer my fear of people's judgments on me and speak my mind to get my topic across. Another big satisfaction was being able to tell people I had autism and be proud of it. I finally got to spread awareness for autism and got people to realize just how serious the spectrum disorder has become. I also became glad that I could learn even more deeply about one of the disorders on the spectrum that I live with and how different my life is compared to other autistic people. I got to realize that I was one of the very fortunate recovery cases of kids with autism and it shows up a lot less than it used to; so much so that people didn't even know at first that I had autism.

One of my only problems was getting my project started because I didn't really have the materials to do everything or have permission to start it in school. I eventually got those taken care of as I got lots of ribbons from the Autism Society of America and also got permission form Mr. Hackney to start my ribbon selling during school lunches. My other main problem came from obtaining more information because I already knew a lot about autism before I started so finding even more useful info could be difficult. Thankfully, I got ideas from my mentor and topic expert that got me digging in even deeper into the topic than I had once thought I could.

Time management has been something I've had trouble with in the past but I think I started to improve on it. I learned to do most of the background stuff such as citing my sources and reading articles back in the very beginning and should not start throwing things in until I know exactly what I want for my research. I moved pretty quickly and had extra time on my hands and that became important since I would have corrections to make every now and then. I admit that I didn't spend as much time on the presentation and project as I should have but I still did mostly what I could with everything I had.

Some of the extra free time may have been helpful to me since the project overall got very stressful, particularly when I asked for feedback from other people on certain things in my project. Talking to some friends and moving a little slower with my project at times was a good way for me to keep my stress level at a minimum. I didn't do too much on the project when I had a lot of work to do but when I was calmer and didn't have too much to do, I moved as quickly as possible with my project, hoping for no errors or setbacks on the way.

I thought the project was pretty interesting but I realize now that I should have done some things differently. I thought I could have done a better job when it came to the research I obtained since I could have made it a little more diverse from everything I ended up getting. The biggest difference I would make would be for the hands-on project because I later realized I could have put more effort into it than I did. If I could do this again, I would try harder to spread information about my project to the public and go to further extents such as going to a park to see if people there would want to help my cause and my project.

I thought I did a pretty good job on the project overall. Even though I already knew a lot about my topic to begin with, new info I obtained increased my knowledge even further and I was able to use a lot of that knowledge to both develop my project even more and get a better understanding on how I live my life beyond what I already realized. I went everywhere I could with autism, ranging from symptoms and causes to emotions and differentiation from other disorders. I thought I used most of the information I could but maybe could have done a little more on the project. That is why I think I deserve a grade somewhere near a B+.