Progress+Reports

__**Progress Report #1**__

The project as a whole has gotten to a good start and I'm proud of most of the progress I've made. My topic is working out nicely as I already know a lot about it and the research is easy to find so the research part ha been pretty easy up to this point. I didn't meet some of my expectations however as I thought I would be a little further along in the research by now and I didn't get to do the project I planned to do...not yet at least. I'm going to try to get into contact with the Autism Society of America soon and hope for the best to make up for what I couldn't do up to this point.

My next few goals include expanding my ranges of research, getting in contact with a member of the Autism Society of America, and hopefully get my project in the works if not completed. I'll try to look into deeper areas of autism to expand my knowledge while getting in contact with the society in order to get my project a helping boost and maybe even more useful info for my project. My mentor has been trying to talk to me about my project at least once every week or so to help give me some ideas as well as helpful tips to help me with my research. I'm still looking for a topic expert but the person I'm thinking will be that expert already tells me she knows a good bit on Asperger's and the autism spectrum and knows other places for me to search so my project can go even further. She has already given me ideas to help my topic and agrees to help me however possible if I choose he as my topic expert.

__**Progress Report #2**__

The research paper has been going quite well so far in my opinion. I have much of the information organized and the paper looks like it could reach the required length and still go over all the things I need to go over. I have, however, learned from my mentor that there are still a few things about autism that I don't know such as theories of neglectful parenting causing autism. I may have to dig in even deeper to finish my research but the main bulk of it all sees to be done as the information I have found is plentiful and spreads across most of my purpose for the paper.

My next main goals for the paper really couldn't be much simpler. I have to finish off the draft with what I have to make sure I have as much information as I need, check these empty spots that my mentor and topic expert have pointed out to me, and make sure everything is neat so the information in the paper isn't a huge bundled up mess. My topic expert and mentor have been helping me a good bit in the past week. My mentor talked more to me about her experience with autism and how most o the possible causes are merely theories and there were that even I did not find yet so I have to look those up to make sure I know as much as I can gather for the paper. My topic expert has been a great help because she gave me things she used to present Asperger's Syndrome to other people so I could gain even more info on it and also gain an even deeper understanding of myself living with this disorder. The only help I've asked for was to the Autism Society of America Greater Philadelphia Chapter so I could get help in getting my project started but they haven't had any major impact on the paper unless their information pamphlets will contain information I could use that I didn't get before.

__**Progress Report #3**__

This project is going much better than I expected it to yet it still has some setbacks I wasn't expecting. I got my paper really far into development and it is going really well while my research is still expanding and I have made contact with the Autism Society of America in order to get my project idea up and running. The only things that may be an issue include seeing if I truly have enough research and getting my supplies for my project since I don't have them as soon as I expected. I'll wait a little longer to see if the supplies come soon and contact them again if I don't get them within a week and I'll look up extra resources in case I need a little more info.

My main plans before the next checkpoint is to have the research paper done and over with in a neat fashion, get the supplies I need in order to get my project under way, and find extra info that might not need to go in my paper but help me with my ending presentation as well. My mentor has been supporting me as she talks to me about her personal experiences on learning about autism to give me more ideas to gather for my research. My topic expert has been doing wonders for me as she keeps telling me about all of her presentation materials she used for Asperger's Syndrome and giving me books that ca give me even more info than I previously had. The Autism Society of America said that they were going to mail me the ribbons and pamphlets for helping me spread awareness but it is taking longer than I expected and I haven't heard back from them in a while. I'm hoping I can make even more serious progress in the next few weeks so I can make this project as successful as possible.

__**Progress Report #4**__

I believe that my hands-on project is coming along very well. I've gotten a good start to my project as I am more than halfway done and the money I've made selling the ribbons seems quite reasonable. I just keep hoping that I'm also spreading awareness about autism, which is the bigger objective I'm hoping for out of my project. Not all of my goals have been completely met, though, as I haven't sold as many ribbons as I have hoped to at this point and I'm trying to get a little more money to donate to the Autism Society of America. I'm still going to be accepting donations and selling ribbons until winter break and will donate money myself if I think there should be more for the society.

My next three goals for the project are to get most of if not all of my ribbons given out to people, have at least $200 of donations for the society, and give them the money I earned from donations during if not before the winter break. My mentor has given me many ideas for how to get my project going and how we are going to get the money to the society. She even donated some money herself and plans on donating even more money as time goes by. My topic expert has been a great help as she has taken a ribbon from me as well as donate a good bit of money to my cause as well. She also promises to spread word of what I'm doing to others in the school so more people can help me with my project.

__**Progress Report #5**__

I have done very well in reaching my goals as I have a basic idea of how I want to do my presentation and I am very influenced by my creativity in creating my slides in order to get a better understanding on how I'm going to present my topic. The goals aren't as easy to accomplish as I thought since my creativity can only go so far but finding pictures for slides of my Powerpoint is going to take extensive work then what I've done already.

My next three goals for the next progress report is to mainly complete my ideas for the Powerpoint, find pictures that make sense and I can properly cite, and make sure I know EVERYTHING I'm talking about in my presentation. My mentor has tried helping me in giving me pointers on how to properly convey the information I have to the audience as well as what kinds of info to give in my personal story. My topic expert has given me more books to look over so I can elaborate on points in my presentation and be more likely to last the entire 15 minutes. I think I'm doing very well but I have to keep finding pictures or I'm going to feel "trapped" the way I mention in the beginning of my presentation.