2,893 Inspirational Passion Project Ideas
Turn inspirations into your passion project.
This collection of project ideas, shared by Polygence mentors, is meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.
- AI/ML
- Animation
- Arts
- Biology
- Biotech
- Business
- Cancer
- Chemistry
- Cognitive
- Computer Science
- Creative Writing
- Dance
- Dentistry
- Economics
- Engineering
- Entomology
- Environmental Science
- Ethics
- Fashion
- Finance
- Game Design
- Healthcare
- History
- Illustration
- Languages
- Linguistics
- Literature
- Math
- Medicine
- Music
- Neuroscience
- Nutrition
- Organizational Leadership
- Philanthropy
- Philosophy
- Photography
- Physics
- Psychiatry
- Psychology
- Public Health
- Quantitative
- Social
- Social Science
- Sports Analytics
- Statistics
- Surgery
U.S. Social Movements
In this research project, students will explore one or more social movements in nineteenth or twentieth-century U.S. history. Students may choose to focus on significant civil rights movements, such as women's rights and feminism or the fights against racial segregation and disenfranchisement, the Chicano Movement, or the American Indian Movement. Or, students may choose to focus on other institutional reform movements, such as antislavery and abolitionism or educational or prison reform. Students may also be interested in exploring a multitude of other important social and moral reform movements including temperance and prohibition, dietary reform and/or animal rights movements, environmentalism and conservation, or conservatism and progressivism.
History, Social Science
Gender Inequality and the COVID-19 Pandemic
This project looks at the gendered division of labor in the home during the pandemic. I interview couples with children about how they divide up work in the home, from childcare to cooking and cleaning. The goal is to understand if and why gender inequality may have worsened during the pandemic.
Social Science
Are Economic Sanctions Still Effective?
Economic sanctions have been used since the First World War as a deterrent to physical force to secure peace. This project will look into past conflicts and more current conflicts to assess the effectiveness of economic sanctions.
Dance, Psychology, Economics, Social Science
International Development and Aid
From Sub-Saharan Africa to Patagonia, from the United States Virgin Islands to the jungles of Southeast Asia, government organisations and non-profit groups support initiatives from disaster relief to gender equality. With many intriguing aspects of international development to consider, students may study the various types of infrastructure that sustain these projects, explore the reasons that motivate and demand differing strategies or analyze the benefits and disadvantages to the effected populations. By examining this topic, students can develop research and writing skills while expanding their communication and critical thinking capacities.
History, Literature, Social Science
What's unique about your neighborhood? Creating a neighborhood based art history project
Students would create a project based on their neighborhood, and the history, communities and cultures that exist there. This project would involve researching the demographics of their community, and potentially reaching out to different community organizations to find out more about them and their cultures. It also would involve researching the history of their neighborhood, from what indigenous people occupied the land to more recent social and political history. Then, students would create an art history project, that could be featured as a public event/ exhibit / public mural in their neighborhood. This project would be adapted to every student's geographical location, neighborhood and community and is open to creative interpretation.
Psychology, Arts, History, Literature, Social Science, Organizational Leadership
The Struggle for Integration in American Professional Sports
The mid-1900s has numerous examples of players breaking "color barriers," but not all sports approached integration in the same way. Analyzing the most popular sports of the time period, including basketball, baseball, and football, this project will conduct a historical analysis of how American professional sports differed in its approach to integration. Which leagues were the slowest to integrate, and how did the leagues' justifications for their actions differ? What forces may have been most significant in causing the leagues to take different approaches?
History, Social Science
Building a Data Analytics Dashboard or Portfolio
Prerequisites: AP Statistics or equivalent, an interest in a social science question you want to ask Do you want to analyze your home state’s mortgage data to map out racial discrimination in housing opportunities? Have you ever wondered if a nation’s military spending can predict its success in fighting an insurgency? Do speakers of minority languages across the world have lower standards of living than speakers of majority languages? If you have ever had a burning question about a social science question of any type, I would love to work with you to build a data analytics dashboard or portfolio. If you are interested in the concept but don’t have a topic in mind, I’d love to work with you to find one! This project includes a few phases. First, we must outline your question and figure out the exact parameters of what you’re asking. Then, we have to find data. If we’re lucky, someone may have already collected a dataset. If not, we can think of ways to do our own primary data collection. Then, we will clean and analyze the data. If you only have experience with Excel, that’s okay! Excel can be a powerful tool. If you have experience with Python or R, or are interested in learning some of these coding languages, we can also use these tools for data cleaning and analysis. Finally, we will produce a dashboard or portfolio to visually tell a story with the results of your analysis. We can accomplish this using Excel, Python, R, and Tableau. If you don’t have experience with one of these tools but would like to use them, I would be more than happy to help!
Languages, Economics, Social Science
Adolescent Sleep Health
Adolescence is another period of development in which a lot of changes are happening, especially in relation to sleep health and stress. The student will be able to create a consent form and a small survey which will be administered to adolescents. The analysis will be run on these data and findings will be disseminated.
Neuroscience, Psychology, Social Science
The Literature Review
You wanna learn more about existing research in the field of your choice? I got you. Whether it is to find patterns in past empirical findings, summarize cool theories in a field you like, or lowkey diss the methods used by past researchers, doing an extensive review of the existing literature is the way to go! You'll find research papers, read them critically, and synthesize what you've found. Together, we'll go through the criteria of a "good" research paper, the ways to go about obtaining research papers, and talk about the findings you come across. Choose this project if you're down to read a lot and want to feel like an utter expert on a topic!
Social, Psychology, Social Science, Statistics
The Persuasive Potential of Message Framing, Temporal Orientation, and Self-Affirmation in Anti-Vaping Campaigns
This is a project I am currently working on that aims to better understand what aspects of anti-vaping messages are most persuasive. Additionally, the project looks to establish how successful certain messages might be in changing attitudes and behaviors among individuals who use e-cigarettes.
Social, Psychology, Quantitative, Social Science, Public Health
Spanish and How it Got that Way
In 711 C.E. the Arabic-speaking Umayyad dynasty began their conquest of the Iberian peninsula, now present-day Spain and Portugal. During this time, there was over 800 years of Arab cultural and linguistic influence on the region. Today, over 4,000 Spanish words derive their origins from Arabic. Students can explore the influence of Arabic on Spanish through the lens of historical linguistics.
Literature, Languages, Creative Writing, Linguistics, Social Science
Supporting Home Book Reading in Libraries
Early language is critical to later literacy and book reading is the activity that most consistently has been found to be a setting that fosters growth. It is not just book reading, but how books are read that is important. In this project you will work with a children's librarian to develop a method of introducing parents to effective book reading in a reading hour in the children's section of the library. You will identify and practice effective strategeis, with the help of the librarian identify books appropriate for children at different ages, and advertise your sessions. At your sessions you will distribute questionaires and attempt to get parent to volunteer to be contacted by you afterwards. These data will allow you to see how attendees responded to your session, find if some of them adopt and use your methods, if they return for later sessions, and if they note changes in their child's engagement with books. Prerequisites: A willingness to talk with librarians and parents you do not know and to promote your workshop.
Psychology, Social Science, Cognitive
Non-Profit Social Welfare
With levels of food security and homelessness rising throughout the United States, non-profits and NGOs aim to serve vulnerable populations throughout the country. These groups may likewise support victims of domestic violence, child abuse, natural disaster or many other hardships. By better understanding the at-risk clients, the basic function of the service organizations and their position within the greater society, students will be able to evaluate their abilities, weaknesses and potential. Students can choose from an array of topics within this field to study and will sharpen their capacity to research, communicate and think critically.
History, Literature, Social Science
What makes people more trusting of technology?
Nowadays, we use technology everyday - to get around, to relax, to communicate with others, to find information, etc. Although technology is everywhere around us, we still struggle with trusting it - many of us probably know the feeling of receiving an ad for a product right after looking it up, which is likely uncomfortable for many. Many people do not feel like they can trust their technology, which may prevent them from benefitting from technology. Given how much we use technology, it is important to understand what characteristics of technology make people more or less likely to trust it, and in turn, use it. If the student finds questions about trust within the context of technology interesting, we can explore a research project in this space.
Psychology, Economics, Social Science, Statistics
Earth's Health Gauges
Develop a set of metrics for understanding how Earth is doing with regards to environmental factors, human rights fulfillment, and other key wellness criteria.
Computer Science, Economics, Quantitative, Social Science
Exploring Identities Through Multimedia
As my final project for a study abroad program I did in Rabat, Morocco, I filmed an experimental documentary of a 20-year-old Moroccan woman to capture her life, dreams, vision, and identity. I am very interested in exploring various identities and the way different aspects of society, such as culture, gender, language, class, race, and religion affect identities through film and other media. If you are interesting in creating and portraying unique stories and people through multimedia (film, podcasts, music, art, etc.), I would be happy to help you!
Music, Social, Arts, Creative Writing, Social Science, Cognitive
Let's get creative: blog post, podcast, infographic...
Who ever said academia is boring? Let's get your creativity flowing and work toward a final product that makes scientific knowledge fun. This could be a blog post, podcast, infographic, personal memoir, YouTube video, or so on! Based on your specific research question, we'll start by gathering the information you need (through a survey, interviews, reading existing research on the topic, and so on). We'll then work together to present that information in a creative format.
Psychology, Social Science
"Your zip code matters more than your genetic code"
Place matters for your health. Where you grow up, live, work, and play are important predictors of long-term health. In this project, you'll explore how neighborhoods (e.g. economic resources, access to healthy food, green spaces, and education) impact risk for cardiovascular disease AND racial and ethnic disparities. You will learn about public health theories and frameworks, social determinants of health, and health disparities. Students can explore this topic using quantitative or qualitative methods, or both! Quantitative methods include utilizing publicly available, nationally representative surveys such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Qualitative methods include conducting go-along interviews in which students go on a walking tour in neighborhoods with individuals living in that neighborhood.
Quantitative, Social Science, Public Health
Cookie Wars: How Lawsuits Shape Firm-Level Evaluations
A possible research project could explore the impact of being sued on small businesses, specifically in the food industry. The study could focus on the example of Crumbl suing Dirty Dough, as well as other similar cases. Using data from Yelp, the study could examine changes in customer ratings and reviews before and after the lawsuit. Additionally, natural language processing techniques could be used to analyze customer comments to understand their perceptions of the company before and after the lawsuit. The study could also investigate any changes in the company's social media presence and overall reputation. By conducting this research, the study could provide insights on how being sued could potentially benefit small businesses by bringing more positive attention to the firm, depending on the audience and their preferences.
Economics, Quantitative, Social Science
Are mangrove restoration efforts effective? Measuring the long-term impacts of restoration efforts.
The re-planting of mangrove habitats have been a popular tool in habitat restoration. However, emerging research shows that many of these restoration efforts don't last. Using satellite imagery, measure the growth (or decline) of a site where a large-scale mangrove restoration operation occurred.
Quantitative, Environmental Science, Social Science
