Picking a topic for your research project is often one of the hardest parts of conducting an experiment. Here are some basic steps you can follow to come up with an idea.
A. Reflect upon your personal experiences and problems you’ve noticed
B. OR reflect upon problems you’ve seen in the news lately
C. OR reflect upon research currently taking place
D. OR pick a field of science and find scientific literature (studies) related to that field
Life Science
Physical Science
Social Science
Environmental Science
Interdisciplinary
Something else!
Look into what research has been done in that area, or any new findings.
Use a database like Google Scholar to read about studies done in your chosen field
See what the research doesn’t do, does wrong, or identifies as a future step.
As you read, narrow down your topic to be more specific in what you want to research and think about how different topics/fields may intersect.
Ex. How environmental pollution may affect the health of organisms.
Think about specific pollutants and specific organisms that may not have been researched well, or maybe a combination of them
Create and evaluate your Research Question
YouTube video about creating a question: How to Develop a STRONG Research Question | Scribbr 🎓
Questions to ask yourself about your question
Does the question fill a gap in knowledge?
Does the answer to the question have practical implications?
Can the question be answered with numerical data from one (or more) experiments?
Identify your independent and dependent variables and make sure they are included in your question
Independent variable (x):
The factor being changed
Dependent variable (y):
The factor that depends on the y (usually what you are measuring)
Example: The effects of different amounts of water on plant height
Independent variable: The amount of water being given to each plant
Dependent variable: The height in cm of the plants