Absolutely they do.
For that paper, I might start with shared DNA, and how we are all related if we go back far enough. There is no reason to believe we are special. We are just another species of animal, just like the rest of them. We are the least specialized species, I think, and we are pretty smart and capable. But we are animals like everything else. There are animal behavior studies that clearly demonstrate cognitive ability in non humans. The most famous writing about this that I can think of is Jane Goodall's observation of chimpanzees of Gombe using tools.
You might not get a very good grade for writing the paper, though.