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.

People working on laptops
Arts

the Seahorse

i want to live underwater. so i paint underwater worlds with water color, sometimes on paper, sometimes on my bedroom walls. the drawings are calling to be animated. so i wrote this short story: One day I spotted a seahorse. That is odd, I thought. It was approaching me. It also had a suit on, and carried a briefcase abruptly on one of its fins. I lifted my tentacle and shook its fin. The next day I spotted a seahorse. That is odd, I thought. It was approaching me. It had the same suit on, and carried the briefcase on its fin. I lifted my tentacle and shook its fin. The next day I spotted the seahorse. That is no longer odd, I thought, it happened yesterday and it will happen tomorrow. It was approaching me, with the same suit and briefcase on its fin. I lifted my tentacle and shook its fin. On my way home, I counted my tentacles again. Five. It happened yesterday and it will happen again tomorrow.

Arts, Creative Writing

Lina
Lina

Write a 10-Minute or One-Act Play

Ten minutes doesn't sound like much time - and it's not too many pages, either. However, a ten minute play can be in the works for months before it realizes its potential as a highly concentrated theatrical work. The same can be said for a one-act of 40 minutes or less. A student interested in writing a short theatrical work may expect to: - Explore the basics of playwriting, major tenants of theatre history, and the context in which the student writes (this is what is known as dramaturgy) - Conduct research concerning their chosen setting or context for a play - Extensively, creatively, brainstorm and challenge convention - Write the play, of course - Edit the work based on feedback from professional sources, and/or anticipated audiences - Learn the standards of formatting convention for playwriting - Witness a reading of the work and take note of its impact and opportunities for growth - Be encouraged to share the work on the National New Play Exchange, or a different platform or publisher of choice This experience may be challenging, but the project may also be exceptionally rewarding. Whether a lighthearted piece or a somber one, there is much to be gained in seeing one’s imaginary friends take to the stage!

Arts

Sarah
Sarah

Punk, Goth and Alt Influences on Building Community in Marginalized Populations.

This can be a podcast or presentation on the rising influence of alt lifestyles in building community and belonging in marginlaized communities. It can include interviews with current alt and goth artists and research on the healing powers of music.

Music, Psychology, Arts

Irene
Irene

Design a Treatment Intervention

Given my background in delivering and designing interventions for clinical research projects, I could help students to develop psychoeducational materials, a workshop, a brochure, or a program of some sort that would hypothetically be given to a sample of participants as a treatment for a psychological and/or behavioral problem.

Psychology, Arts, Languages

Caitlin
Caitlin

Is a Portrait of the King Propaganda?

In 16th century Europe, artists like Hans Holbein the Younger worked for royal courts and rich citizens. A student could do a research project about how the art made in these settings relates to propaganda as we now understand it.

Arts

Sarah
Sarah

Food and food systems

Exploring the process of how your food gets to your table and the different political and social factors that contribute to food insecurity.

Arts, Social Science, Nutrition, Public Health, Organizational Leadership

MONICA
MONICA

Create a graph database from unstructured data

Journalists and social scientists are turning to NLP to understand complex relationships among documents and the entities they reference. An example is a story I worked on for WIRED, for which we built a graph database out of Twitter posts, and used this to discover mistakes in Twitter's disinformation policy. https://www.wired.com/story/how-americans-wound-up-on-twitters-list-of-russian-bots/

Arts, AI/ML, Game Design

Alex
Alex

What makes the Baroque, baroque?

For the student developing their portfolio who wants to add an extra layer of depth and context to their work. We would take a deep dive into works of the European Baroque, identify what defines it, and create a connection to your current body of work. Create a new sculpture, painting, photo, or digital work employing elements of the Baroque to help you draw comparisons between what you are doing in your portfolio with another historical time period. Also, to help you define today’s period by looking at another moment in art history.

Arts

Joe
Joe

Images of the Past and Visions of the Future

The work of artists like Albrecht Dürer, Hieronymus Bosch, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder often engages with time periods other than the present. A student could do a research or curating project that considers how a specific group of images of the past (showing classical topics, for example) and/or visions of the future (showing the Apocalypse, the afterlife, or a utopic future world) relate to the present.

Arts

Sarah
Sarah

Remix A House

This project will research the various means and methods used to produce architectural drawing and imagery. Choose from a list of historically significant houses and compile a body of research showing the way the project was originally drawn and develop an opinion and response to them. After investigating the drawings you will embark on producing your own drawings of the house. Drawings should not replicate what is already drawn, but rather should be planned with the intent to push the conceptual driver of the house as well as capture the personal agenda of the student. Final deliverables might be 2D plans, elevations and sections, collages and photo realistic renders, physical drawings, etc.

Riots, Parties, and Protests: Performative Strategies, Political Projects

How can theatre and performance help us understand the politics of protest? We'll use performance as a lens for digging into the strategies of political and social movements. We'll analyze how groups and individuals articulate their goals and use their bodies to disrupt and reimagine everyday spaces.

Music, Arts

Kelly
Kelly

User-centered Design in Healthcare System

Have you ever wondered why healthcare apps mainly use blue as their primary color? Have you ever been frustrated with a healthcare system? How can we reduce the feeling of anxiety while waiting in an emergency room? In this project, you will learn about the scientific process, user interviews, secondary research, gather data, and present that data on multiple different forms or a research paper. More importantly, you will explore many different ways of how system design can improve or impact people's lives and use your creativity to come up with a solution.

Biology, Arts, Languages

Tian
Tian

Neuroscience of Optical Illusions

Publish a compiled article on the current neuroscience knowledge of optical illusions. This might involve a range of topics from cell biology at the retina level to higher order systems topics aimed at understanding how optical illusions are produced in the brain. The end goal might be a research article compiling different neuroscience concepts associated with optical illusions in the style of a review article.

Biology, Neuroscience, Arts

Gil
Gil

Self-Compassion Intervention Literature Review

My most recent area of focus pertains to evaluating the effectiveness of self-compassion interventions for health behavior change. I would love to help students conduct a literature review project on the topic of self-compassion interventions by assisting them with literature searching, critically consuming literature on the topic, and writing a literature review paper.

Psychology, Arts, Languages

Caitlin
Caitlin

Healthcare Regulation and COVID

How has healthcare regulation changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic? How do you think public health perception has influenced these changes? Let's write a paper or make a podcast!

Biology, Arts, Chemistry

Gina
Gina

Race and Gender in Young Adult Literature

This study compares issues of gender and/or race in contemporary young adult literature. The researcher chooses three popular YA books and examines the ways in which the author addresses topics such as gender, racial identity, and/or social interactions revolving around race. The researcher can pose the following questions as they interrogate the texts: 1. How does the author present a unique perspective or viewpoint regarding race or gender? 2. To what extent does the author challenge or reinforce conventional thinking around race and gender? 3. To what extent is the author’s work a response to an existing text? 4. To what extent does the author deliver a message about these topics? 5. To what extent is that message implicit or explicit? 6. Considering that the author is most likely an adult, how accurate is their depiction of issues around gender and/or race? (The researcher would probably insert their own experiences and observations about these topics in their own lives.) This study can also target children’s books or young adult books from different decades. For example, one could compare “The Indian in the Cupboard” (1980) by Lynne Reid Banks to “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” (2007) by Sherman Alexie.

Arts, Literature

Jeanne
Jeanne

Sustainable Meal Alternatives

Analyze a local food system within your community, like your high school, your religious community, or even a local eating establishment. Measure and analyze the potential sources of greenhouse gas emissions from the ingredients in a specific dish. Design an alternative to this dish using your understanding of the social and environmental components of eating.

Biology, Arts, History, Environmental Science

Alyson
Alyson

Documenting past society through a single object

For this project, the student would visit a local museum and choose one object that is on display (e.g. a tool, art piece). Beginning with the museum archives, the student will document basic facts on the object: date, location of origin, description of object (size, color, shape, basic function), and how the object came to the museum. Using the local library and online sources, the student would carry out a deeper history on the object to understand its cultural context and life history. The student will situate this object within the broader society and culture at the time of its use. As a final outcome of the project, the student will provide their new research to the museum to keep in the museum's archives or to add to the museum display. Furthermore, the student could publish their results in a school or local paper or journal. This project could also be expanded into a larger project on the site or environment of the object's origin or on other associated objects to further reconstruct the culture and society in question.

Arts, Languages, Environmental Science

Amanda
Amanda

Exploring the applications of spintronics technology

In this project, students would explore real-life applications of spintronics technology, a cutting edge and rapidly evolving field of research. By looking into fundamental research that has happened throughout the past years as well as reading into recent papers that have been published, students can give an overview of the overall topic, as well as potentially propose their own ideas or applications.

Ethics, Physics, Arts, Engineering, Literature

Meg
Meg

Write and Record a Podcast

This project begins with questioning and ends with the development of technical recording skills and working with production software. While working with me, you will take your curiosities and turn them into tangible answers that can be shared with the rest of the world. Step 1: Find your curiosity Step 2: Read, wander, and research through current answers that already exist Step 3: Find specific individuals that seem like they have the answer Step 4: Talk to those individuals Step 5: Synthesize your findings in a written script with a logical flow Step 6: Organize that script into a recorded collection of your discoveries Step 7: Publish your work through a podcasting platform Through this project you will develop: 1) Recording and editing experience 2) High-level research skills 3) Critical thinking (and questioning) 4) The ability to conduct a successful interview 5) Written and verbal content synthesis 6) An understanding of podcast publishing platforms

Music, Philosophy, Arts, Social Science

Elyssa
Elyssa