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.

Check out some projects

1 - 3 Album Songs

Have a concept for an album in mind but can't seem to put notes to paper? Or, do you have a couple songs but want to find a way to tie them together into a larger concept? These are all great and exciting places to be in, and I would love to help you manifest your visions!

Music, Creative Writing, Illustration

Katherine

DNA Poetry Book

DNA is helical, stable, ubiquitous, generous, replicative... There are many things about DNA to know and to marvel about. The deeper one dives into the varied aspects of DNA, ones' wonder and appreciation for the molecule can reach greater heights. This project entails making a book of poems (12-24) on different topics of DNA. A few suggestions of the different DNA topics include: its historical discovery, DNA's different structural properties and organization, mitosis, meiosis, inheritance, cell-free DNA, sequencing and genomics, natural variation and evolution, disease, DNA repeats, extrachromosomal circular DNA, mitochondrial DNA, enhancers, centromeres, telomeres, DNA replication and repair, epigenetics (beyond the DNA), etc. If you can, find a typewriter for creating the final drafts and bind the book together using online tutorials as a guide.

Biology, Creative Writing

Andrés

2D/3D Registration of Lego Bricks

Registration is the process of aligning two different measurements of the same object. For example, in computer vision, it is often desirable to stitch two photos together to create a panorama, thereby registering one photo with the overlapping portion of the other. 2D/3D registration is when an existing 3D model, like a CAD surface, is aligned with an image of the same object, either simulated or in the real world. This has applications in medical imaging, such as aligning a 2D X-ray image with a 3D CT scan. In this projects, students will curate a dataset for 2D/3D registration of LEGO bricks and train a keypoint detection algorithm to perform the registration. LEGOs are well suited to this task because 3D models and simulated images are readily available. Minimum deliverables include a dataset hosted on Kaggle and an arXiv paper describing it. The maximum deliverables includes a trained registration algorithm and accompanying paper.

Creative Writing, AI/ML

Benjamin

10 minute writing from the soul: what will it reveal?

Inspiration is found deep within. What do you remember? Write. Let your fingers dance. Remember something in detail? Bus driving by your house? Write it. Let your consciousness flow through you. Write as much as you can. Exercise a little creativity and elaborate. Let's take a look at what comes out and then let us draw and paint.

Creative Writing, Illustration, Animation

Anna

Narrative Nonfiction

Is there a story from your life you have the burning urge to tell? Or maybe there's a narrative, an object, or a story out in the world that you hope to explore through writing. Come talk to me if you want to learn more about narrative nonfiction — a wide and far-reaching discipline that encompasses everything from personal essays and essay collections to public-facing articles and critical work. We'll explore work that aligns with your interests and explore your own voice and process, culminating in a project that allows you to tell your story — whatever that may be!

Creative Writing

Christopher

Fish detective: why are some fish more abundant than others in the same environment?

A new Bermuda fish species (Polymixia hollisterae) was recently detected for the first time in the Gulf of Mexico. Very few have been found in the wild (<100). What makes this fish so elusive? Discover how DNA and the environment might contribute to this mystery.

Creative Writing

Nia

Impacts and Outcomes of Young Adult Literature

Young adult (YA) literature is a popular field that often targets heavier topics like trauma, illness, grief, and struggles with facets of identity like race, gender, and sexuality. Often, the goal of writing books like this is to connect with an audience and help them in some way, to assert that they aren't alone. How does YA help adolescents? Are adolescents who read YA better adjusted as they grow older?

Social, Psychology, Literature, Creative Writing

Leela

Translation

Translate Spanish poetry, fiction or non-fiction material into English. Improve your knowledge of both languages and dive deep into the world of translation.

Literature, Languages, Creative Writing

Kendall

Unearthing Mythological Archetypes Operating in Exceptional Film Structure

By applying the works of such writers on mythology as Joseph Campbell, Carol Pearson, Riane Eisler and Carl Jung, among others, a prospective student can illuminate the Hero’s Journey underlying the storytelling effectiveness of a chosen film.

Creative Writing

Jeffry

Potential Solutions to Reduce the Environmental Footprint of My High School

Most of what we do as humans causes some effect on the environment. With the way we live now, our greenhouse-gas-emissions, water-use, and waste-creation (just to name a few) put an unhealthy strain on our environment. Fortunately, there are ways to calculate these metrics for a given place or process and later identify hotspot issues. From there, we can come up with action plans and more sustainable solutions. For this project, it is advised that the student start by identifying common streams of inputs and outputs at their school. For example, a student can note inputs like supplies, food, water and even energy sources like the gas for heating or school buses. Outputs like food waste, flushing toilets, and all those old homework papers can be noted, too. The student will attempt to quantify and analyze all these streams… especially focusing on potential hotspots like energy/CO2 emissions. Data may be available (monthly fuel for buses, building heating bills) or some data could be collected by the student (average portion of lunch food thrown away). The student should practice creating data tables and graphs, and most importantly, interpreting these results. Finally, the student should do thorough research to discover and present innovative solutions to reduce the environmental strain of their school. Most likely, there would be a written deliverable for this project; but, it could also be a great opportunity for the student to visually present this project to a principal, teachers, or school board. In summary, the student will gain knowledge about issues and solutions relating to environmental sustainability. In addition, the student will gain tangible skills in calculating environmental metrics, collecting data, and creating descriptive visuals like advanced graphs. The project can be altered to fit a student’s needs and interests.

Dance, Creative Writing, Environmental Science, Business

Mackenzie

Writing the first draft: Novel and Short Story

Getting started on your first draft can be difficult. Sometimes writing that first sentence is the hardest part. In the first draft, you're still getting to know your story and characters. In this project, I'll support you through the process of writing your first draft. First, we'll discuss what kind of story you want to tell and your goal length. Then we'll discuss how to create characters and antagonists and how to begin plotting out your tale. Throughout the process, we'll also discuss how to defeat writer's block, write for genre, connect beginnings, middles, and ends, discover the hero's journey, think outside the box, and the best ways to end the first draft.

Literature, Creative Writing

Katrina

Writing an Anthology of Ekphrastic Poems

Some of the greatest poems in history, including poems by John Keats and W.H. Auden, were written about works of art. They are called "ekphrastic poems." Would you like to write your own collection of ekphrastic poems, inspired by innovative paintings from art history and contemporary art? In this project, you will learn both about how to analyze art and how to write impactful and polished poems.

Dance, Creative Writing

Margarita

Stanford Rebuild | COVID-19 Response in Prisons

How has COVID-19 impacted the prison space and the lives of incarcerated individuals? What has happened to formerly incarcerated individuals during this pandemic and how should we be thinking about this as a society? Would want to focus on clearly quantifiable sources of impact in addition to opinion-led thinking here.

Creative Writing, Business

Ben

Racial Wealth Gap in New Jersey

Did you know New Jersey has one of the largest state-wide racial wealth gaps in the U.S.? In this project, you'll search for data to further understand this issue. You'll answer questions like: what's the difference between income and wealth? We'll analyze statistics and perform research into the history of the state to understand how it got to its present-day crisis. You may also research solutions and relevant steps to end this disparity throughout the state of New Jersey.

Creative Writing

Alison

Identifying Bias in User-facing Machine Learning Models

Machine learning models are ubiquitous in our digital lives, but their presence is not alway obvious. Recently, Twitter users discovered that the automatic cropping used to display preview images was biased toward white, male faces. This is an example of statistical bias arising out of our human bias; because the facial detection algorithm was trained on a dataset of predominantly white, male faces, it predicts similar faces with high confidence. This project challenges students to identify similar instances of bias in interactive digital media resulting from machine learning and AI. Students will perform controlled experiments to understand the extent of these biases and explore their consequences for end users. Potential deliverables range from a blog series to a research paper.

Creative Writing, AI/ML

Benjamin

Creating Your Own Chapbook or Literary Magazine

Have you ever wanted to create your own collection of poetry or short stories? What about running your own literary magazine? Either of these are fantastic projects that can allow you the freedom and excitement of creating original work and/or collecting and editing work from others. In the first style of project, a chapbook, you would be encouraged to come up with an overall theme and then create a collection of poems and/or stories to arrange in your own self-published work. You might also look into traditional publishing and even learn about how to write query letters to propose your book. You can choose to build on work you've done previously, or you can start fresh. This is the type of project that will appeal to those who are highly creative but who need some assistance from someone with experience in arranging works for flow after revising them. You can choose either a traditional publishing option if you want to leave the project open-ended (since in a typical Polygence mentorship there would not be enough time to secure a traditional publisher) or you can work through the process of self-publishing, which might also include a bit of instruction on techniques of marketing via social media. The second option, if your inclinations lie more towards editorial work, is to create your own literary magazine. You might still choose to include a work of your own in the collection, and you'd likely write an introductory essay as the editor, but the rest of your project would entail creating a concept for a magazine, setting up a call for submissions, and then advertising your call to either people at your high school or even beyond. As submissions come in, you would then read and evaluate them for suitability in your magazine. You would arrange the pieces you've chosen, edit them, and either self-publish and/or electronically publish. You would also learn about marketing this kind of publication. Both of these projects would be excellent choices for someone interested in literature, editorial work, publication, and social media marketing.

Literature, Creative Writing

Susan

Trials and Memory in Post-War France

My student worked on an extended research paper on the trial of a Nazi War criminal in post-war France. She conducted research in French and English.

History, Creative Writing

Elizabeth

Association between Demographics and Prevalence of Various Mental Disorders in Local Community

This study examines the association between different demographics (e.g., gender, race, age, socioeconomic status) and the occurrence of different, highly prevalent mental disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, eating disorders) in the local community. We can reference larger statistics on national prevalence rates of mental disorders to compare whether the prevalence rates found in the local community are higher, lower, or average.

Psychology, Literature, Creative Writing

Hayley

Intersectionality and the Classroom

I would love to engage in research projects with students that examine the interaction(s) between a given vector or vectors of identity and classroom experience. I hesitate to offer specific examples, as I would welcome students' own lived experiences and intellectual interests as the driving forces of such research projects, but just a few theoretical studies that come to mind are: - the politicization and regulation of femininity in the classroom - school-based discipline and its linkages to the carceral state - the impact of a teacher's text choices on students' learning experiences and reading identities. I would love for students to feel able to leverage the validity of their own lived experience as important and critical "data" by which to draw their own conclusions and offerings on the American school system!

Literature, Creative Writing, Social Science

Jack

Write A Short Play!

We'll work together to brainstorm, free-write, and edit your play. How can we use language to mold a story? How can we drive a point home without it feeling repetitive? How do the most successful playwrights do it? These are just some of the questions we'll interrogate throughout the creative process.

Creative Writing

Alison