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
Social Science

Blood Lead Levels from an Rural-Urban Epidemiological Lens

Using CA blood lead level data from the past decade, I've partnered with a colleague to descriptively represent the current state of lead contaminated water, particularly in the state of California, and how that issue disproportionately impacts areas approaching greater rurality. The data used is openly published and underwent an audit.

Music, Social Science, Business

Chance
Chance

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

Grady
Grady

Perceptions of therapy

Although many people would say that mental health counseling is helpful, many people have feelings or beliefs about going to therapy that prevent them from utilizing mental health resources. We can develop a project to explore the perceptions that your family, community, peers, or a specific population hold regarding mental health counseling. Do they believe therapy is important? Do they utilize therapy themselves? What do they think of others who utilize therapy? Once we understand the beliefs that discourage individuals from participating in therapy, we can come up with interventions that can challenge those beliefs and improve mental health outcomes!

Social, Psychology, Creative Writing, Social Science

Nat
Nat

Mental health intervention development using a community participatory approach

Actively engage multiple stakeholders in designing and development mental health interventions. Tailor the intervention content and delivery to best meet the needs of the individuals in need.

Social Science, Statistics

Liying
Liying

The Town I'm In

For this project, you will write a research style paper on the topic of your home town. You may include information relating to your towns social status, minority ethnicities, or historical events that may have taken place there. This assignment will help you practice using different search engines for your research, as well as give you a chance to practice the correct way to use citations. In addition you will be given a chance to perfect your writing and editing skills.

Literature, Math, Social Science

Paul
Paul

The Proposal

Do you have a vague research idea but have no clue where to start? Then this is the project for you! By working on a research proposal, you'll learn how to define your research questions, pick the best research methodology, and learn some cool stats to answer those questions. Together, we'll discuss the challenges your research project may face, pros/cons of your methods, and the potential significance of your findings. At the end of this project, you'll have a "research proposal" that should convince any reader of the importance of your project (and hope that they'll agree to fund your research)!

Social, Psychology, Social Science, Statistics

Aili
Aili

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

david
david

Health Beliefs and Practices in a Cultural Context Project

This research project will focus on health beliefs and practices within a specific community. Explore how cultural norms contribute to or hinder health-related behaviors. The student may conduct surveys or interviews with participants in these communities to understand how peer information and cultural context impacts health behavior, treatment choices, and other health behavioral outcomes. This project could involve reviewing scholarly literature, gathering and analyzing data, and presenting results in the form of a scientific research paper, blog, or other platform of your choosing. The student can produce a research report or academic paper that highlights the intersection of sociology and cultural studies, providing a deeper understanding of how cultural contexts shape and are shaped by social dynamics.

Social Science, Statistics

Elizabeth
Elizabeth

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

Perry
Perry

High School Students' Self-Efficacy and Locus of Control Regarding Environmental Issues

Students are often left out of decision-making processes that directly affect their present and their futures. This is especially the case with environmental issues, in which the youngest generations will suffer far more than their parents. Many students understand that in order to protect their planet and their futures, our systems of government need to act now. Some students have found ways to make their voices heard in an attempt to direct environmental policies. This could be in the form of creating or joining a student advocacy group such as the Sunrise Movement, or some other novel way of amplifying student voice. This project would identify and then survey and interview a group of these students. Through these methods we would seek to understand how much control these students' feel they have over environmental policy (locus of control) and how much they believe they can change their situation (self-efficacy). A control group of students would also be surveyed in comparison to see if participation in these types of activism is correlated with higher self-efficacy or locus of control.

Social, Social Science

Jennifer
Jennifer

The Effects of Early-life Abuse on Stress Regulation

This project will involve doing a literature search on the role that loved ones and familiar faces/odors play in regulating the stress response in infants. This project can also include a component that details how early-life abuse/maltreatment manifests into later-life pathology. Understanding how relationships in early-life affect adulthood and the fear response is critical in getting a comprehensive picture of how living beings respond to stress and unfamiliarity.

Psychiatry, Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Social Science, Cognitive

Elizabeth
Elizabeth

Norms of Cooperation: Politics and Science

Much of American society holds scientific practice and debate as the gold standard for objective and successful cooperation. By contrast, American political life is considered an abject failure: divisive, polarized, and gridlocked. What explains this discrepancy and is it accurate? Are the motivations of scientists or their subject matter what accounts for their comparative success? Are structural features of scientific practice or its norms responsible for this percieved discrepancy? What can the political sphere learn from scientific practice?

Philosophy, Social Science

Daniel
Daniel

Understanding Diversity and Inclusion within STEM

The world needs scientists from all backgrounds - yet, disparities exist across race, gender, and class in who becomes a scientist. Recent literature in the social sciences and education suggests that there are multiple angles researchers and policy makers can take in combating these disparities. In this project you can review current interventions designed to promote diversity in STEM, and these interventions underlying psychological mechanisms. Projects could include a suggested intervention to promote STEM interest among currently underrepresented students.

Social, Psychology, Social Science, Statistics

Andrew
Andrew

Conference Paper/Presentation

As an undergraduate, I produced 2 academic papers a year which were presented at international conferences and published in academic journals. Conducting an independent research project will allow you to explore a personal area of interest in more depth and demonstrate your dedication to pursuing knowledge for the sake of learning. Together we will explore your interests, develop the scope of the project (qualitative or quantitative), and learn how to navigate the landscape of current literature to produce a focused, applicable, and professional article of original research.

Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Creative Writing, Social Science

Cayla
Cayla

How does technology help Wildlife

Research how technology is improving wildlife populations and connecting parks throughout the US

Computer Science, Social Science

Cole
Cole

The Relationship Between Time Spent in Nature and Psychological and Physical Well-being

A survey study to measure how much time high school students spend in nature, and how this is related to both their psychological and physical health. Questions may include the types of nature activities that students are engaging in (hiking, going to the beach, biking, etc.), how often they are engaging in these activities, stress level, anxiety rating, depression rating, and self-rated physical health.

Psychology, Social Science, Statistics

Hayley
Hayley

Research Paper

Are you interested in writing a complete research paper about Asian American communities and their issues? Want to learn how to format and structure a research paper? If so, we can work together to create a full-length research paper all on your own!

Social Science

Emily
Emily

Medical Access Among Trans and Gender Diverse Populations

What is the experience of trans and gender diverse (TGD) people in accessing healthcare? How does the community find safe and affirming sources of primary and specialty care?

Social Science, Public Health

Aiden
Aiden

What is food justice and how can we build it?

This research will focus on the concept of food justice in a theoretical and practical sense, and will then examine how different policy or political changes can improve the nutritional security of households?

History, Social Science

Claire
Claire

Intersection of Depression and Diabetes

Students would use publicly available data to assess the prevalence of depression medication use stratified by chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity.

Social Science, Public Health

Shaina
Shaina