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
- Comp Sci
- Creative Writing
- Dance
- Dentistry
- Economics
- Engineering
- Entomology
- Environmental Science
- Ethics
- Fashion
- Finance
- Game Design
- Healthcare
- History
- Illustration
- Languages
- Linguistics
- Literature and Languages
- Math
- Medicine
- Music
- Neuroscience
- Nutrition
- Organizational Leadership
- Philanthropy
- Photography
- Physics
- Psychiatry
- Psychology
- Public Health
- Quantitative
- Social
- Social Science
- Sports Analytics
- Statistics
- Surgery
Building an Online Exhibition
Do you love museums? Perhaps an art gallery strikes your fancy. What if we took something you're passionate about - a hobby, a niche interest, a research project - and turned that into a digital exhibition for all to see!? (It would be pretty rad) This project culminates in building a media-rich, digital collection using the open-source platform Omeka. Although the subject material can vary, humanities/creative arts adjacent topics may feel most tangible to initially dive right into. Throughout the project, we'll discuss research processes, craft a thoughtful and engaged narrative, choose items, work with metadata, and assemble an exhibit. Depending on the subject matter and access to materials, we can also engage with digitization techniques. We can also explore options to potentially host your exhibit so it can be accessible via the Internet!
History
Inside a Strike
Strikes happen all over the world, all the time, for tons of different reasons, but in many cases the only records of them appear in local newspapers and corporate records. Let's find a strike in your local area--be it a teachers union, healthcare workers, grocery store employees, whatever interests you--and write an oral history of it. Combining newspaper research with a handful of interviews of union members and community members, you'll produce a bottom-up portrait of labor organizing that also records an important piece of local history.
History
Religious Minorities in World History
Religious minorities have had an important presence in world history. Today, religious minorities face misunderstanding and persecution in multiple world regions. Together, we will build a reading and research project on a topic of interest to you from the perspective of history and related disciplines. Themes to focus on could include the construction of tradition and identity, material/socioeconomic history, music, literature, art and architecture, minorities in premodern and modern empires, minorities and nationalism, minority-majority relations, and conflict and repression.
History
A Girl in Haarlem
My student wrote a five-act play based on the 80 years Dutch Wars of Independence.
History, Creative Writing
Contemporary Connections to Historical Themes
One of the most exciting things about history is making connections between historical research and our present moment. These kinds of connections are important not only in traditional academic writing, but also in journalistic pursuits as well. Together we could delve into archival sources to uncover historical trends and phenomena, and connect them to present day events and trends. These connections can be explored in a traditional academic paper, or be used as the basis for a podcast series, social media project, or digital archive. An online exhibit, social media page dedicated to a concrete theme, or even a news article or an op-ed would be a fun project that we can work to develop together.
History
Cracking a Case Study
Graphic design involves a lot of creative leaps from start to finish, but it's not just the final draft that matters - clients and employers want to see your thinking throughout the process. This project starts with a finished design and asks you to retrace your steps, writing out your design reasoning, branding choices, visual research inspirations, accessibility audits, and alternate options. How can you craft a narrative that supports your work?
History, Arts
Reading the Classics
Guided reading of literary or historical texts from antiquity or from 18th or 19th century America. Examples could be reading the Greek and Roman biographies, the speeches of Lincoln and Douglass, or ancient or modern poetry.
History
Investment Strategies for Financial Freedom or FIRE
A hands on project that will allow the student to understand and deep dive into the fundamentals of capital markets in the United States. The student will not only write a paper, but also create a strategic action plan that dictates the actions to take in order to maximize returns on capital. The following skills and concepts will be learned and applied: -Brokerage Accounts -Stock Picking -Mutual Funds and ETFs -Hedge Funds and PE Funds -Capital Gains and Taxes -Retirement Accounts and Tax Advantaged Accounts -Advanced Research (Fama French model vs. Cap M) -Income budgeting
Psychology, Business, Social Science, History, Finance, Organizational Leadership
Wellness Fun - Public Service Announcement
As a result of the pandemic, wellness is on everyone's mind. In this project, you will develop a Public Service Announcement (PSA) about a fun wellness technique for students your age. Topics can range from " Getting outside into nature" to "the benefits of yoga". This process will teach you how to research wellness trends for your age group, develop a media presentation (Instagram story, TikTok video, or Powerpoint, etc) to promote this trend and disseminate your findings with your school or community. You will gain skills in writing, editing, communication, researching scientifically backed wellness trends and engaging your peers in fun activities!
Public Health, History, Literature and Languages, Languages
Costume Design Research & Sketching For Period Accuracy
With shows like The Queen's Gambit, Downton Abbey, Mad Men, The Crown, Outlander, and Stranger Things, we are given the gift of time travel. We almost feel like we are in those times with the details and idiosyncrasies some shows and movies bring to us. But how do costume designers, production designers and fashion historians do their research? How does a script or photograph translate to what goes onscreen? I want to take you on a journey into the wonderful world of historical fashion research. It's almost like being a fashion history detective. There are years of work that go into making accurate depictions of times past onscreen or on stage. It's exhaustive work, but boy, is it fun. There is a plethora of indicators and nuances within fashion history that denote status, class, change in materials, geographic location, and more. How have the lapels and trouser shape of a men's suit changed from 1850 to 1880 or the jewelry of the 1990s? Developing an eye for the vast differences in how fashion has morphed and changed with time is essential for being an altruistic designer. Whether it's nailing a time period's details you seek to learn, or sketching out an entire show, we will explore the subtle details, the hair, the ruffles, the jewelry, the shoes, the skirt lengths, and the sleeve flounce of whatever period or subculture you aim to learn about. I will discuss better ways to research, including tips and tricks and ways to decipher nuances in photographs and garments. This includes quality and style of clothing, fabric, fit, socio-economic influences, as well as political and war-time changes; not to mention the changing fashion of hairstyles and makeup too. I want to teach you how to really see and what real people, not just celebrities and musicians in magazines, dressed like. Lastly, I aim to help you accurately decipher and document status in dress. Whether it’s the difference between a Civil War Brigadier General and a member of the Company or an 1850’s woman of privilege versus her scullery maid you seek to find, there are many exciting nuances and vast distinctions to explore in status.
History, Arts, Fashion
Cultural Musician Profile
Using profiles like Doreen St. Felix's article on Missy Elliott as examples, a student would create a multimedia article on an artist of their choice that touched on how that artist's music has been culturally significant, not only to the general public, but also to their culture of origin. Students would be asked to do the following: 1) Choose an artist with a cultural background significant to their music 2) Research that artist's cultural background, their relationship to it, and how that cultural background influences their music. What are some of the cultural conversations happening, and how does that artist navigate those conversations? We would be looking news articles, as well as some entry-level academic texts that covered these issues. 3) Choose a short selection of songs that show how those conversations come up. Using close reading methods, a student would look at the lyrics or musical production of a song to see how some of these larger issues are being tackled musically. This project would teach students to do media analysis that is cognizant of the cultural influences present in said media. I would be using my expertise in ethnic and gender studies as well as media studies to guide students through this project and help them develop questions they might have concerning how to do research. The composition seminar I taught focused heavily on black music, and I would use that experience teaching students how to write about musicians and their cultural backgrounds to help students create an exciting and rigorous final article.
History, Literature and Languages, Languages
Print, Polemic, and Poetry
How did the invention of the printing press coupled with the Reformation catapult different genres of religious literature into everyone's hands? Literate and nonliterate people alike spent their hard-earned cash to see some spicy takes on figures like the pope (vicar of Christ or anti-Christ?) and Martin Luther (liberator of the conscience or arch-heretic?)—why?
History
Writing a literature review
In this project, you will write a literature review on a topic of your choice. Topics could be anything related to food systems or food policy, from “the history of community gardens” to “how will we feed an ever expanding population?”. This process will teach you how to find, access, and critically analyze existing literature to identify gaps and overarching themes. You will gain skills in writing and editing, as well as an in-depth knowledge of your chosen research topic.
Environmental Science, Business, History, Literature and Languages, Arts
Capital Punishment in America
Examining the legislation and case law surrounding capital punishment in various jurisdictions across America.
History
Exploring Intergenerational Perceptions and Experiences of Gender and Sexuality
This project encourages students to interview individuals across generations on topics of gender and sexuality. Some research questions the student can tackle are: - How do individuals of older generations perceive contemporary gender and sexual culture? - How have individuals of older generations resisted normative constructions of gender and sexuality? How do they compare to those of younger generations? - In what ways can conversations between older and younger generations around gender and sexuality contribute to our current understanding on the topic? What are some barriers to having these conversations? Guided by these questions and with Shio's mentorship and research background, the student will not only be able to gain knowledge on the history of gender and sexuality through primary and secondary sources, but also acquire research skills in oral history and interviews. Specifically, the student will learn how to write a research proposal and determine the scope of the project, learn how to write an interview schedule, and figure out how to access different tools to record and transcribe interviews. Depending on the student’s capacity and preference, this research can result in an oral history project, podcast, research paper, and/or presentation.
History, Literature and Languages, Arts
Banish Writer's Block: Creative Writing Projects
Do you have a creative writing project you want to finish? Let’s get to it! I work with writers on everything from short stories to book-length works. We’ll focus on combining writing with writing studies research. In our first sessions, we’ll identify a realistic timeline and goal for your project. As we move forward, you’ll conduct research on genre and writing habits that will support your productivity, help you build productive writing habits, and move you from draft to done.
History, Literature and Languages, Creative Writing
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.
Social Science, History, Literature and Languages
The Social Construction of Coal in Late Medieval Asia
The Ottoman subject Ali Akbar al-Khitayi, in 1516, submitted a travelogue of China to the court of Sultan Selim I, in which he wrote of coal in the followings ways: "In China they use a black stone in place of firewood [...] near Beijing there is a black mountain and they use the stone from it to heat their homes." (The translation is original.) What does it mean that Ali Akbar, as a well-traveled well-educated individual, did not know what coal was? And what does it mean that, by comparison, people in (north) China were quite familiar with coal? Exactly how widespread was rudimentary coal technology in the Asian continent of the early 16th century? Kenneth Pomeranz' highly influential The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (pub. 2000) makes the case that access to coal resources differentiated early modern England from the cultural and economic center of China in its southeastern region in the same period. This access, he claims, led directly to England and then Europe's economic domination of the globe. What access to coal did Ottoman subjects have in this same period? This paper utilizes wide-ranging primary sources in three languages to provide answers to all of these related questions.
History, Languages
Self-Expression Through Artistic Means
Painting, drawing, collage, sewing, writing, weaving, crochet, rug making, furniture painting, and cooking all all things I love to do. How do and how can we express ourselves through artistic means.
History, Arts, Fashion
The Lasting Effects of COVID on School Attendance
As most schools have returned to the pre-2020 model of school administration (no longer wearing masks, social distancing, etc.), do students still attend school when feeling under the weather at the same rates as they did previously? Alternatively, are students more cautious about infecting their classmates, or perhaps less? In this project, we will design a survey that will attempt to get a picture of how students think about the risks that they pose to other students when sick, as well as the risk that other students pose to them. Using both qualitative and quantity survey methodology, in addition to broader scholarly research, this project will try to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affected school attendance during and after the pandemic.
Social Science, History
