Which country won the Vietnam war? Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? What is the number of voting representatives in the House of Representatives? Can’t answer those questions? Chances are you are not alone, as most of the American population cannot answer basic questions about US civics, politics and history. That is not acceptable and I am here to help solve the crisis.

How did I come to know about the problem at hand? It came to light from of all media, a Youtube video. This video accurately showed that the majority of the American public does not know basic information. For one of the questions, most responses to “Name a country that begins with u,” were “Utah.” Utah is not country, the United States of America is. An overlooked problem in our society is that the citizens are not fully informed about the country they live in. It has always frustrated me to see that citizens who grew up in a school system, which although is not the greatest, can’t remember the topics they learned in class or in school.

“Americans Don't Know Much About History” reads the title of an NBC article, detailing the lack of knowledge the country as a whole has. This could be the fact that our education system and our method of news distribution has been . I am not fond of American news agencies for their constant repetition of information and only reporting about the “breaking news.” One might at least know, from all of the ad hominem thrown at the public, what some current issues are and maybe basic facts. But no, an article by Mic.com on a study done by Ispos-MORI, shows that our country is the 2nd most ignorant in the world when it comes to knowing about social issues and topics.

This infographic above is a great showing of where we fall on the ignorance scale.

What does not being informed mean to the country though? By not being informed, the country will not be able to make decisions that help the situation. Like immigration, most citizens know that illegal immigrants cross the border, but many don’t know that immigrants legally take the citizenship test have a 97% chance of passing! What does this have to do with the situation? Well the whole test is about American civics and politics so Americans should pass with ease, right? Wait for it, 1 out of 3 naturalized citizens would fail the test. If the number of answers right needed to pass the test was 7 instead of 6, 1 out of 2 naturalized citizens would fail. What does this all say about our country? That we are losers and or stupid? No, it says we need to study more and be engaged in the topics that affect us all

This above is the chart on how many native citizens would actually still get to live in the country if they had to take a citizenship test to determine their status.

After reading this, some might say, “Who cares? The government makes the decisions and not me, besides I already am informed about this country.” It does make a difference on what you know,  this country is a republic and built off the people. I hope to see throughout the course of this project, that citizens will all take charge of our American knowledge and strive to learn about the country we call home. It is a civic duty to be informed. Our country must enlighten itself.

Images are taken from sources listed in the bibliography.

Practice your American smarts

Check out the youtube video which got me started, I bet you will laugh!

Want to take the Ipsos-MORI test, click on me!

Bibliography

What I like to do this Benchmark for this quarter is doing, Sponsors for Immigrants.

I would like to do this topic because there are many students, kids, and even adults who came to America, from another country, but wasn’t able to do so without a sponsor.

Sponsoring has a different meaning in both America, and outer-America. I think it’s obvious what it means in America, which is a person, firm, organization, etc., that finances and buys the time to broadcast a radio or television program so as to advertise a product, a political party, etc. . In the immigration field, the term "sponsor" often means to bring to the United States or "petition for".

Tan Le, a women who had a similar experience. Tan Le is the founder & CEO of Emotiv, a bioinformatics company that's working on identifying biomarkers for mental and other neurological conditions using electroencephalography

http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_my_immigration_story?language=en#t-3199

She talked in a TEDtalk to share her immigration story.

Immigrants who boards to the U.S are considered “Aliens” as said here;http://www.immihelp.com/affidavit-of-support/sponsor-responsibilities-obligations.html

The reason why? I don’t know myself, I still have more research to go through but, I have enough research to tell you about the topic i'm doing and enough information to give you a “Sneak Peek” at the topic.

Another thing I like to talk about is William Sloane.

This picture is William Sloan,William Milligan Sloane III, also known simply as William Sloane, was an American author of fantasy and science fiction literature, and a publisher. Sloane is best known for his novel To Walk the Night.

When I asked my father what his sponsor’s name was before he came to America, He answered with excitement. He asked me if I know where he lives or what not, how’s he doing, or how his children were. He told me stories like how young my sister was, when they came. My father also spoke about wanting to visit to say his thanks for helping him and his family to be here and live a happy life. The thing that saddened my Dad was the death of William Slaone. He died April 12, 2004. My father still kept a smile up and asked if I can have any sort of contact to his kids. The only thing I found interesting about William Slaone before he died, was his extended interview; http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2004/08/27/august-27-2004-william-sloane-coffin-extended-interview/2945/

Many Americans have explored the luxurious world of fast food but not many of them know what they are actually eating. On the top 15 fattest Countries in the world the United states is number nine. I believe most people are or becoming obese is because they don’t know what they are eating. I would now like to introduce you to my project. My project is based upon fast food industries, what I am doing is bringing awareness to what is actually in the food that we are eating. Yes, they might tell you the calories in their food but they don’t tell you what’s actually in their food. That is what my project is for to raise awareness and hopefully make a change in people’s diets. I’m interested in this topic because my little brother eats McDonalds, Wendy’s, Popeyes, etc. and he is 30 pounds overweight for his change and I don’t only want to show him what he’s doing to his body but my mom as well because she feeds it to him. Showing them Data and all the things I researched will hopefully change my brother’s eating habits.

"Average Height to Weight Chart- Babies to Teenagers." Disabled World. Disabled World. Web. <http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/height-weight-teens.shtml>.

My project is very significant to the World because no one ever stops to take a look and see what they are actually eating and I think it’s about time we should. McDonald’s is one of the most famous and largest fast food restaurants in the world. There was a documentary called Super Size Me directed by Morgan Spurlock. It brought awareness to what McDonald’s food does to your body. Yeah sure people laid off McDonald’s after seeing the documentary but of course Most people went back to their regular diet. With my project I want to dig deeper into the fast food industries food. Not only McDonald’s but Wendy’s, Chic-Fil-A and Chipotle. I picked these other 3 because they seem to be the most prominent fast food joints now and I would like to research more on where where all of their food supply comes from.

I first researched the World’s favorite side order, French Fries and what I found is horrifying. I first researched McDonald’s French fries and rather having the usual three ingredients Mcdonald’s had 17. I found this great website that tells you all 17 ingredients and how hazardous they are to human health. One in particular that I found very disturbing is the sodium acid pyrophosphate which is used for the color in the fries. It makes you think well what is the actual color of the fry? This is not only McDonald’s fries either, it’s Wendy’s too. Wendy’s has made a claim that their new and improved fries are natural, well that’s a lie. They first get a dip of sodium acid pyrophosphate then they are powdered with a little more natural D-glucose. So this proves that Wendy’s is a little less natural than they make it seem and this website gives you a lot more information on Wendy’s fries. Vaughan, Mark. "We Did the Fast Food Burgers,now We Need to Do the Fries." You Are Not a Fit Person. 26 May 2010. Web. <http://youarenotafitperson.com/2010/05/26/we-did-the-fast-food-burgers-now-we-need-to-do-the-fries/>.

It is important for everyone to know about this because I bet you are reading this now and wondering what is in the food you are eating now. I bet you are questioning everything you eat and order from fast food restaurants. Have you ever questioned what is in the chicken nugget and what makes it a nugget. Well these doctors in this article questioned the same thing and they did a whole experiment on it. They dissected two different chicken nuggets from two unknown places. When they looked at the chicken nuggets under the Microscope they found blood vessels, fat, skeletal muscles, cartilage, organ tissue, bone fragments and many more disturbing things. So if you have to ask why this is important to you, read that. It’ll change your mind.

Hamblin, James. "Look Inside a Chicken Nugget." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/look-inside-a-chicken-nugget/280720/>.

Going through the process of my project I am wondering about many more things that I haven’t researched yet. For one where does all of the beef come from that is in the burgers? Also questions like where does Chic-Fil-A’s chicken come from since it claims to be real and I also want to dig a little more into Chipotle and see what they’re hiding. Moving forward with this project I am sure that I will answer all of the many questions I have. Not only will I do that but I will accomplish my goal with this project which is raising awareness. At least 2.8 million people in the world die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. I want to stop this and I am hoping my project will atleast help with this problem.

Annotated Bibliography

Online Predators. Most people have heard the term, but what, or really who, are they? In a nutshell Online Predators are people who commit child sexual abuse that begins or takes place on the Internet. “Predators have easy and anonymous access to children online where they can conceal their identity and roam without limit. Often, we have an image of sexual predators lurking around school playgrounds or hiding behind bushes scoping out their potential victims, but the reality is that today’s sexual predators search for victims while hiding behind a computer screen, taking advantage of the anonymity the Internet offers.” According to Enough is Enough. Children are targeted, but a large amount of Teens are affected as well. “The majority of victims of Internet-initiated sex crimes were between 13 to 15 years old; 75% were girls and 25% were boys.” Was recorded by the JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. Here is a graph that shows the most popular ways these said predators can reach the children.

"InternetSafety101.org: Statistics." InternetSafety101.org: Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <http://www.internetsafety101.org/Predatorstatistics.htm>.

This needs to be brought up and have more awareness for many reasons. One; most children are not educated or not educated enough about this topic. If we could teach kids how to be safe Online, there would be a lot less of this crime going on. Two; some parents are not educated enough in this field. If more parents knew the signs of a predator, then more of these instances can be avoided or cut off before it goes out of control. And finally; our society is mostly based off of modern technology. This allows Predators to stalk in the depthness that is the internet and can get away scott-free. If we educate and teach more individuals about this issue, more events like these can be stopped. There has been cases where some police units are trying to bring up awareness, however it is not brought up enough on a global scale. A picture of the Police's Campaign Poster is here:

Flickr. Yahoo!, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <Source>.

So what are some of the signs of an Online Predator? According to the Washington Police there are several tricks Online Predators use including, but not limiting to; chatting privately, flattery, intimidation, asking for personal information, and sympathy. The main way predators lure in their victims is by ‘grooming’. “Grooming is how online predators manipulate children into meeting in real life with their sole goal of having sex with them. Predators will spend weeks, months, and/or possibly years "grooming" their victims before asking them to meet in real life.”

So in conclusion people who commit child sexual abuse that begins or takes place on the Internet are known as Online Predators. They ‘groom’ children into thinking they are trustworthy and take advantage of that to engage in sexual offenses. There are many signs of having contact with a predator such as chatting privately, flattery, intimidation, asking for personal information, and sympathy.

Everyone has heard of mental illnesses throughout their life or maybe have experienced it. Mental Illness, or Mental Health, affects the way you think, handle stress , relate to others and make choices. Mental illnesses can be triggered by past experiences or genes. Having a mental problem is really common so treatment is easily found. Something that is not common however is some actual mental health cases. I’m sure we have heard of Depression, Anxiety or maybe Schizophrenia. But, yes there is a but, have you ever heard of Alexithymia? What about Hysteria? Or even Paranoia Schizophrenia ? I am here to raise awareness for ALL mental illnesses. I care about this topic because I not only have friends who have some of the following mental illnesses or the more common ones but I too also have a mental illness. I have Paranoid Personality Disorder. A person with paranoid personality disorder will almost always believe that others are trying to harm or kill them whether or not there is evidence to prove it.

More people suffer from mental illnesses than we think.

Hysteria is a psychological disorder that basically turns stress into symptoms. It gives the patient an unmanageable amount of emotional access, going as far as possibly numbing different body parts. People with Hysteria set aside their emotional problems from even themselves and involuntarily develop different tactics and symptoms to protect themselves from facing these problems. Originally, Hysteria used to be called “Female Hysteria” as the term hysteria was once used to describe a medical condition thought to affect only women. The term hysteria even came from the Greek word hysteria which means “uterus.” Hysteria can also give the patient very acute senses, due to a dissociation of the patient from their mind, leaving them in complete control of their body’s function and reflexes.

Sometimes patients will be asked by their doctor or therapist to describe how they feel and they can not. It’s not because they do not want to, it’s because they do not know how to. Alexithymia literal translation is the lack of words for emotions. Not many have heard of Alexithymia as it is very rare. Only 8% of males and 25 of females experience alexithymia Discovered in 1972, Alexithymia is not considered a diagnosis but a way for patients to easier describe their experiences. Alexithymia has been confused has been confused as depression, autism or even schizophrenia. Because patients with Alexithymia have a difficulty expressing their emotions to others and so are often left to leave emotions bottled up. This normally leads to depression, self harm or more common suicide.

This is a simplified version of what Alexithymia is that I felt was necessary to include.

Right now I am hoping I will raise awareness to people that mental illnesses are not just Depression and Anxiety. That there is more to the list. My only question for this entire thing is how many people will actually remember this information and keep it in their mind that mental illnesses are more complicated that they seem.

Bibliography

https://www.libertymutual.com/safe-and-smart-living/blog-posts/teen-texting-and-driving-statistics

In today’s modern world, teenagers are sometimes the causes of their own accidental deaths. I know most parents are nervous about their teens driving and also that most teens now have smartphones. Having these two things in the same car are very hazardous to the teens and other drivers on the roads. I’m not saying that teens having the ability to drive without their parents at their side, but I’m just saying that teens should be more careful and more aware of what they are getting themselves into. I chose teen driving distractions as my topic because I feel as though no one really talks about it and because they are the main cause of most deaths. Another thing is that teenagers are being allowed to get their permit at the age of 15, and I know from being a teen myself, that we all have new technology that gets us very distracted and keeps getting more and more distracting every time Apple comes out with a new phone, etc. People need to be more aware, especially parents, about what their child is doing in the car while driving when the parents aren’t with them. That’s what I’m here to talk about.

http://blog.leizerman.com/tag/ohio-distracted-driver/

This is a picture of an Ohio teenage driver that is being distracted by their phone.

in 2011, 933 passengers died with a teenager behind the wheel and that having two or more passengers triples the risk of a fatal death with a teen at the wheel. This issue may seem scary to some people, but most of you are scared that this might happen to you. When you were little, your parents told you what was right and what was wrong and they probably still do, but this time they can say what they were unable to tell you about rights and wrongs before. Some of those things may be how you shouldn’t drink and drive, but sometimes it might be not to drive in the dark with another teen passenger.

http://weimarlaw.com/car-accidents-teen-drivers-top-4-causes-of-accidents-caused-by-teens-pt-1/

Distracted driving and speeding are most dangerous with teen drivers, as shown in this picture.

Something that I wonder is why, even though people sometimes talk about this issue, teens still go out in the world of driving and still continue to do these kinds of things. It really doesn’t make that much sense to me, even after they are told what the consequences are if this were to happen. According to studies: with peer passengers in the car, male teen drivers were almost six times more likely to perform an illegal maneuver and twice more likely to act aggressively before crashing than when driving alone. On the other hand, female teen drivers rarely drove aggressively before crashing, regardless of the presence of peer passengers. This is not my opinion, this is just a statistic, and I can’t really say that I agree with this because I have never experienced it for myself. My whole point overall is be safe while driving and texting and checking your emails can wait. “ The Number 1 rule is to keep yourself safe, … Nothing is more precious than your life and the lives of your loved ones.” - Steve West

  PAWS … That is Not Right!

    Many people think that animal abuse is just when an animal gets harmed by a human, then person gets charged and everything is fine. Well, that is not how things are. Animal abuse is way more detailed than a person just harming your pet. Therefore, throughout this project I will be informing the public that animal abuse is a way bigger issue than our community views it. I am interested and prefer to use this topic than any other one because I have a lot of history with animals that were abuse and simply to educate the public. Furthermore, I see animals as living creature, humans are living creatures, in the end I view most animals the way I view strangers. I am also interested because lately overheard people talking about a dog getting brutally abused by it owners and the person talking did not know what to do at all.

This picture is a picture of a circus elephant get chained up tightly and forced to stand against its will.

     Now lets get to the bigger and more general picture. If you never heard of animal abuse or just simply do not know what it is it is when an animal gets harmed, gets neglected, and does not care for an animal responsibly by a person. For instance, a if person was cruel and took their anger out on their own pet that would still be illegal and inhumane. Also, To hurt or to be cruel to an animal would be against the law no matter what.

This shows how big of a difference between the dogs life when it was neglected and saved. Notice how grateful and happy he or she looks!

    This the significance of the public being aware of the issue is really serious.The issue of animal abuse does not only have negative impact on animals but it does a negative effect on humans. When someone abuses an animal  they may be an more likely to cause violence. Also, if a child witnesses animal abuse they are at greater risk of becoming abusers themselves!  Moving on, if you think that think that animals were only abuse in the ways I you obviously never heard of the brutal acts of factory farming. When you buy food products from an animal such eggs,milk, and meats 99% of the time they are from factory farms. Factory farms are focused on getting money, what is easier, spending the least amount of money at the price of the animals’ life because they are heartless and greedy. For example, they genetically alter animals’ bodies so they can grow extra limbs. Another example is that  some animals for meat are chained up inside so they can never see the sunlight and there bones are so weak the literally can’t stand up. In the end, I just want to put out there that animals abuse is so much more to me and this is only the beginning.

This images show how bad factory farms are because they keep multiple animals is a little lot.

    As I am wrapping this up I am still thinking a lot.  Would people still look at animal abuse as a useless topic to push away and forget about or would they look as it really informed and serious now. For example, would a person who thought the world had bigger problems now look at animal abuse as a serious issue that we need to fix. I am hoping that I could talk more about the topic because I know so much more types of animal abuses such as animal testing, puppy mills, slaughterhouses, circuses and so much more.

Annotated Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/18BMK1fUQllRkI2MlYM-Q-U79AdxJW6gX7x5PIa-Mvyk/edit?usp=sharing

25% of all kids who are diagnosed with cancer will die. That’s not a lie. It’s actually very far from it. I am interested in this topic because I have seen numerous amounts of people in my life battle this. Some reigned victories. Others didn't have the same fate. I saw it as a “necessity” in the world, rather than a “plague”. I didn't believe that cancer had meaning, even though it does. People are diagnosed with this life-threatening illness and I believed that they would have to live with it. I kept that mindset until my best friend perished from this illness. That’s finally when I realized that this is a dilemma that can’t be overlooked, and when I spotted the perfect opportunity, I would retaliate with all of the vigor I had within me. Cancer, more commonly distinguished as Leukemia with children, can be very life-changing. There are multiple ways that people are trying to thwart cancer from spreading throughout the world. But they don’t always have enough motivation and/or support to drive them through. It’s an illness that has yet to be terminated, and it is very difficult to avoid. Without a cure, that makes these patients’ chances slim.

Teen peer-pressure is what I will be basing my project off of. Growing up, I was always affected by this and a lot of my friends struggled with this as well. Every child wants to be liked by their peers in school and some will do anything to receive that acceptance. The topic of peer-pressure interests me because of how much this affected me and other close friends. With teens becoming more and more obsessed with being ¨the popular one¨, I felt that gathering deeper research would be engaging to certain readers. Especially since most of my readers are actually teenagers themselves, this topic can be easier to relate to. Peer-pressure affects a lot of teens around the world, especially when they are attending school.  

http://www.crsmu.com/peer-pressure/positive-peer-pressure/

¨Being accepted by peers is crucial to many teens, and it can affect teens if they are not.¨

Teen peer-pressure is significant because of how many teens it has affected and still affects to this day. According to research from sources I found on this intriguing topic, teen peer-pressure affects around 70% of children at each school. But overall, teen-peer pressure is a common issue for tenagers. All teenagers wants to be accepted in the ¨popular crowd¨ or at least be apart of the cool kids. The Effects of Peer Pressure From research, it states that when this happens teens tend to loosen up and do things that they normally wouldn’t do. Such actions like smoking, drinking, drugs, stealing, and even having sex before ready. I read in my sources that there was a survey that made a compelling conclusion. It states that teens with friends who do drugs and drink alcohol are more likely to do the same. This statement really stood out to me because it’s amazing how much control friends can have over some teens. All parents do is lecture their children on the things not to do, and just because a friend is doing it, now it’s acceptable to join. 

http://trewmunson.wikispaces.com/Peer+Pressure?responseToken=09339a543ef28031e9eed6  a96cbca6764

¨Peer pressure includes teens making big decisions regarding drinking and smoking with with friends that think it is ¨cool.¨

It is important for the readers to know that what you do and say to others really can impact their state of being. And with the information, the readers can think to themselves if they ever felt that they changed themselves because of peers around them. Or think to themselves if they ever made another person feel disliked or unaccepted. The reason why teens give into peer pressure because of friendships and the ¨everyone is doing it¨ factor that can make a teen feel compelled to comply. Giving into the Pressure Combining with a teen’s curiosity this leads to risk taking behavior and why teens give into peer pressure. According to ¨Giving into the Pressure¨ source, teens are accustomed to follow social standards set by their peers.

In conclusion, I wonder what are the things a teen can do to keep themselves in control from pressure they can receive from friends. I wonder what causes a teen to change who they are for others. Is it because some teens feel as though they are not accepted at home and want to attract acceptance from their friends. I am interested in learning how much the use illegal substances affect the pressure put upon teens. Drugs, and even smoking and drinking seems to be the most common activity teens put on their peers, and teenagers follow along to be accepted into the crowd or develop some type of consistent relationship.Troubled Peer Pressure As this project go on, I will like to find certain situations about teens suffering with peer pressure and how it has affected their life as a teenager.

Annotated Bibliography