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
Languages

Exploring Migration in Latin American Countries

In this project, you can explore publicly available datasets from IPUMS on individuals and families (households), with indicators measuring people’s education, income, migration and mobility. How many people move to cities every year? How does their life in cities compare to areas they came from? Do they children get more education in cities then those who stayed in rural areas?

Languages, Economics

Idaliya
Idaliya

A metastudy of quantum computing for personal use

Metastudies are critical analysis and comparison of research that has already been published on similar topics. For example, if you want to assess how quantum computing could best serve individuals you might want to look at studies done where the conclusion has mentioned whether certain algorithms or computer structures were appropriate for individual use. Then you analyze what has worked and what doesn't for individuals and make a new conclusion based on a conglomerate of other papers that have been published. A metastudy would be great at the high school level because it helps you leverage the scientific method to create original conclusions in an emerging field without doing years of research.

Physics, Engineering, Languages

Jasmine
Jasmine

Investigating the theatrical economy of Early Modern London

Background: Theater blossomed in Early Modern London, leading to many of the plays and production techniques that are most famous today. Networks of actors, writers, producers, patrons, and craftspeople collaborated to build a new industry around an established medium. What made this period and city so unique? How were these economic forces reflected in the plays themselves? Questions like these guide academics, who tend to use literature as a tool to understand broader cultural and historical themes. Process: After solidifying your background knowledge, it will be important to narrow your focus to a particular aspect of this period's drama, whether that is a specific play, a theater, or even a production company. Looking for sources in academic journals, literary texts, and primary sources like historical documents will lead you to unexpected connections and a growing clarity about your specific argument. Finally, understanding the broader critical context of how this period has been discussed will allow you to position your argument to make it more unique and effective. Knowledge and skills: Over the course of this project, you will become familiar with the most common skills for humanities research: finding and synthesizing sources, situating your argument in its critical context, digital archival work, close reading, outlining, and explaining the relevance of your results. Outcomes: Literary analysis tends to fit best in essay form, but there are lots of supplemental ways that you can display your findings. Trendy fields like the Digital Humanities and New Theater Studies have placed a great emphasis on websites and even creative writing as a way to enhance an academic argument. We'll review some examples of what's being done currently and look a tools you can use to share your work online in an interactive form.

Arts, History, Languages, Social Science

Henry
Henry

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
Kendall

How Is X Trend Affecting the Technology World

We can take a look at a specific trend, and see how this is impacting the technology world. A few examples of trends that could be interesting: X= 1) Real time tracking (take a look at on demanding tracking services) 2) Consumer lending (see how this affects next generation spending habits) 3) Privacy (and how this is affecting social media platforms) 4) Changing attention speed (and how this is affecting advertising spend and rates)

Engineering, Languages, Business

Cathy
Cathy

Language variation and identity

Speakers of the same language vary in terms of pronunciation, word choice, and other dimensions. This variation is structured, and can often be correlated with factors such as gender, ethnicity, geography. The student will collect data on a case of linguistic variation, and explore how this variation is tied to markers of identity. The student can learn methods for collecting speech and analyzing speech data (e.g. fieldwork methodology, working with online text corpora).

Computer Science, Languages, Linguistics

Jennifer
Jennifer

High School Equity Case Study

Think about your high school and ask yourself the question: “Do/Would students from different backgrounds feel welcomed here?” In this project you will interview students and teachers to document how your school can better champion diversity and inclusion efforts. You will use primary and secondary sources to uncover themes and gaps in your school’s equity policies and practices.

Psychology, History, Literature, Languages

Lydia
Lydia

Creating a short film

In this project, you will capture content on the topic of your choice, then use software such as iMovie or other editing platforms, to edit your clips together into a short film. This project gives you an opportunity to explore filmmaking by learning techniques to combine clips and add audio and visual effects.

Biology, Languages, Chemistry, Public Health

Melanie
Melanie

Religious Pluralism Blog

Curious about how religions are formed, how the grow, and how they influence cultures, start wars, change history? Dive into the background and theory behind a variety of religions and create a multimedia blog to help educate others.

Arts, History, Languages, Social Science

Rose
Rose

Designing and completing a research project

In this project, you will be a scientist and go through the entire process of a research project. You will craft a research question, write an introduction and background section by gathering scientific journal articles related to your topic, design a research method, collect data, complete statistical analyses, and interpret your results and their significance to the related field of research. This project will provide insight into the career of a scientist and a research student studying science. The final outcome of this project could be a poster presentation or a final written product such as a scientific journal article or report.

Biology, Languages, Chemistry, Public Health

Melanie
Melanie

Robotics and Society

The student will investigate a topic in robotics such as home-care robotics. Research on the current obstacle and investigate/design solutions for it. Open to more discussion with the student and based on their interest with the topic.

Psychology, Languages, Social Science

Maria Paula
Maria Paula

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, Languages

Semilore
Semilore

Music History

Explore a topic in music history and research your favorite bands. Explore their influences and their impact on the music world.

Literature, Languages, Creative Writing

Kendall
Kendall

Understand the Stock Market

Personal finance is one of the most important skills a young adult can learn. Together, we will put together a "Best Practices: Stock Market in X Industry". We will go over major vocabulary principals, how the stock market works, and choose certain areas to dive deep on (Discounted Cash Flow, Options, Stock Splits).

Engineering, Languages, Business

Cathy
Cathy

The Captive Medea

This project would look at a number of modern representations of Medea in art and reflect on how the classical conception of this figure has changed to address modern issues of subjugation, power, femininity, and captivity. Material from anthropology and psychology would also be brought in to address the social realities of captivity in the classical period, and show how the cultural frameworks for understanding captive status and enslavement have shifted in the modern period, and what effect this has had on representations of Medea today.

Literature, Languages, Creative Writing

River
River

Create a Literature Blog

This project would be a great way to familiarize yourself with literary critique, and to push yourself to think both as a reader and as writer. By creating and running your own literary blog, you will gather and polish skills such as analytic writing, basic web design, and social media outreach and advertising. This project would also be highly customizable, as you may choose to write brief reviews or longer scholarly essays. Either way, it will allow you to craft your own online space as an emerging literary voice!

Philosophy, Literature, Languages

Lucia
Lucia

(Un)Dutchable Multicultural Citizenship

Netherlands is well-known for its multicultural policies accepting people from different backgrounds including from its former colonies. However, a recent controversy over "Black Pete" during Christmas parades requires rethinking of Dutch pluralism. Every year on December 5th, tens of thousands of Dutch people paint their faces black, dress up in antique costume, and assume the persona of Zwarte Piet (“Black Pete”) to help Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) distribute candy and presents to children throughout the Netherlands. In recent years, Dutch citizens of Caribbean ancestry have spoken out against the portrayal of Black Pete as a racist caricature. In early October of 2013, Quinsy Gario, a Curaçao-born Dutch performance artist, argued on TV that Black Pete perpetuates a stereotype of African people as second-class citizens in Dutch society. Most people and Amsterdam's mayor are willing to make some incremental changes to the "Black Pete" character. This year, they have removed the earring. Next year, they might paint the character with lighter color to fit the story line that Black Pete is black only because he enters homes from chimneys to drop the gifts. However, Geert Wilders, the leader of the far right Freedom Party, has proposed the adoption of a law to protect Black Pete against any alterations in his appearance “to protect our (Dutch) culture.” This incident is one among many that indicates that once “received” understandings of integration, including various models of multiculturalism, are now in question. This has pushed questions of pluralist co-existence to the center of discussion in the Netherlands. What are the best public policy options to address the rethinking of Dutch multiculturalism?

Arts, History, Languages

Matt
Matt

Leadership Model and Multilingual Education

I am also developing a Leadership Model on how Multilingual Acquisition in early age improves classroom results in collaboration with other university in Europe, Scandinavia, North Africa and Middle East.

Languages

Zehlia Babaci
Zehlia Babaci

Has Economic Inequality Transformed Innovation?

Historically, innovation in the consumer goods space has led to two beneficial outcomes for consumers: (1) an improvement in product features and (2) a reduction in product prices. In this paper, we argue that the increased concentration of wealth over the last 50 years in the US has shifted the benefits of innovation away from (2) by disincentivizing firms from focusing on price reductions as a means to achieve growth. To support this argument, we use the profit pool model and analyze the available profit pool by price point for a selection of consumer goods and electronics.

History, Languages, Sports Analytics, Economics, Business

Joseph
Joseph

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