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
- Computer Science
- Creative Writing
- Dance
- Dentistry
- Economics
- Engineering
- Entomology
- Environmental Science
- Ethics
- Fashion
- Finance
- Game Design
- Healthcare
- History
- Illustration
- Languages
- Linguistics
- Literature
- Math
- Medicine
- Music
- Neuroscience
- Nutrition
- Organizational Leadership
- Philanthropy
- Philosophy
- Photography
- Physics
- Psychiatry
- Psychology
- Public Health
- Quantitative
- Social
- Social Science
- Sports Analytics
- Statistics
- Surgery
The sequencing world
In this project, we can learn about the history and future of sequencing technologies, and how they have revolutionized our understanding of the human genome. Students can explore publicly available datasets or write a review article.
Biology, Ethics, Creative Writing
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
Short Story Writing
In helping a student write a short story, we will explore the key elements of what differentiates a short story from a longer piece of work. As a writer myself, I have experience in both long and short form projects and will walk my student through how to approach the short story as a form. My student will learn how to utilize plot, scenery, dialogue, and sensory details in order to explore the focus of their short story. Unlike a novel, a short story should be self-contained. The reader may be left with questions, but it should be complete in having a narrative or character arc that comes full circle. As part of our short story project, I would ask my student to read a few examples of short stories to get an idea of what kind of structure and craft can be utilized in the form. We will then work on a first draft followed by revisions and another draft. By the end of this project, my student will be able to brainstorm and craft their own short story.
Arts, Creative Writing
The Tower of Babel: Languages of the World
We will explore the key topics in global linguistic diversity, enabling students to contextualize the language(s), region(s), or culture(s) in which they are interested. The student can pick one of the following themes to explore: a) the relationships between the world’s languages and language families; b) how languages vary in different social and cultural contexts; c) how the sounds and structures of the world’s languages may vary in general.
Literature, Languages, Creative Writing, Linguistics, Social Science
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
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
Exploring and Disrupting the Pipeline to Juvenile Justice Involvement
In the United States, minority youth—including but not limited to, youth of color, female youth, youth with disabilities, sexual and gender minority youth, and youth of low socioeconomic status, have been found to have disproportionate rates of involvement in the juvenile justice system. In this project, we will identify societal injustices, unjust policies, and risk factors that contribute to greater disproportionality of minority youth and juvenile justice system involvement, and ways to use such findings to better advocate for at-risk youth—whether in the United States and/or in other identified countries. Findings can be disseminated by means of a literature review, oral presentation, publication, podcast, or webinar!
Creative Writing
Creative Writing: Blending Genre, Exploring Form
In this project, we'll learn the rules of literary craft while finding innovative ways to break them. We can explore poetic forms like the sonnet, ghazal, or epic and how to remix them in your own artistic style. I can teach you tools from poetry and memoir to explore your lived experience in a lyric essay. This is not a project about fitting the bounds of tradition; it is about learning to create literature that is uniquely and authentically yours.
Creative Writing, Linguistics
The Leaky Pipeline
Although diversity is required for scientific productivity, innovation, and advancement, women and people of color (POC) are not equally represented at higher academic positions as their male counterparts. Women in the biological sciences represent over half of the PhD student bodies, however less than half tenured professors are women, and even less so of those from minority backgrounds. The gender/racial gap in STEM fields increases as people further their career due to gender/race bias and societal pressures that decrease self-efficacy. Students will learn about diversity, stereotypes in STEM, and career barriers and write a review article summarizing the current diversity environment in STEM and ways we can approach fixing this leaky pipeline.
Biology, Ethics, Creative Writing
Creating a Virtual Reality Art Exhibition
Have you ever learned about the Russian Avantgarde of the early 1900's and how it influenced art practice and culture for decades to come? How would you like to learn about the history of some of the most innovative art movements and curate your own online exhibition of world art masterpieces, selected by you? Using an online template, you will design a 3D layout of your dream art exhibit and create a curatorial narrative about connections your have found between famous art traditions and styles. That involves learning how to research artists and mastering writing about art. Next time your go to the museum, you might be able to tell your friends or family why the curator has arranged the artworks in specific ways and what effect they were hoping to accomplish.
Dance, Creative Writing
Artwork analysis
Analyzing artwork through creative writing and/or research
Literature, Creative Writing
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
Science children's book
It is great to get young kids excited about a topic in science that you are also passionate about, and a fun way to do this is by writing a children's book. You will learn how to craft a short story about a topic in science for a young target audience (e.g. kindergarten). In this project, you will develop important tools for communicating complex scientific ideas to a general audience along with creating a product that can inspire others to become more interested in science.
Creative Writing
Launch a Social Media Brand | Elevate LLC
Help me to expand my business on social media, including content design and marketing strategy across Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and any other relevant platforms.
Creative Writing, Business
Build-A-Zine
Zines are the perfect way to share information and art with the world! Whether printed or online, zines provide a platform to share ideas and resources, as well as create a community space. During this project, I will help you create your own zine! What do you want to share with the world? Whether it's art, writing, music, or a smorgasbord of it all, you can build, create, and distribute your very own zine!
Creative Writing
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
A Collection of Creative Pieces
Could be a collection of poems that you'll have written by the end of the project timeline, short biographical segments paired with poems, an a capella rap "album". Emphasis on self expression.
Music, Biology, Creative Writing
Social Media API Data Analysys
Leran how to collect social media data. Likes, tags, trending topics share and create high level analytical reports. This research effort can done be used as a basis for many practices included marketing, politics and social studies.
Physics, Engineering, Math, Creative Writing
Reflections on Illness
Writing and crafting a series of creative non-fiction pieces that explore the experience of a person with a particular disease, especially if it is your own. Students would be introduced to the concept of narrative medicine and encouraged to use writing to think deeply and reflect on some aspect of the art of medicine.
Cancer, Creative Writing
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
