Aerospace Engineering + Physics
Make a model wind tunnel and test shapes
Build a small wind tunnel from a fan and straws and compare the drag of different shapes.
- Intermediate
- 1–2 weeks
- 500–1,000
606 projects · 13 streams · every class
Investigations 84
Investigation ideas across every stream, with the class, cost, time and materials for each.
84 projects
Pure Mathematics + Cybersecurity
Break a secret with number theory: how RSA works
Encrypt and decrypt a message with small primes by hand, then in code, and see why large primes matter.
- Advanced
- 1–2 weeks
- Free
Applied Mathematics + Sociology
Model the spread of a rumour
Build a logistic model of how a rumour spreads through a school and test it with a class game.
- Intermediate
- 1–2 weeks
- Free
Crops, Soil and Horticulture · Soil Studies
Test the soil of three fields or gardens
Compare soil texture, pH, organic matter and drainage at three sites and suggest suitable crops.
- Easy
- 2–7 days
- Under 250
Civil Engineering · Structural Analysis
Compare the strength of beam cross-sections
Fold the same sheet of card into flat, tube, box and I shapes and measure how much each bends.
- Intermediate
- 2–7 days
- Under 250
Nutrition and Food · Diet Studies
Record and analyse your diet for a week
Keep a food diary for seven days and compare your intake with a balanced plate.
- Easy
- 2–7 days
- Free
Physics · Modern Physics
Measure Planck's constant with LEDs
Find the turn-on voltage of LEDs of different colours and get Planck's constant from the slope.
- Advanced
- 2–7 days
- 250–500
Pure Mathematics + Biology
Explore the Fibonacci sequence in nature
Count spirals on pine cones, sunflowers and pineapples and test whether they are Fibonacci numbers.
- Beginner
- 2–7 days
- Free
Astronomy and Space · Observational Astronomy
Track the Moon's phases for a month
Sketch the Moon every clear night for a month and explain the pattern with a ball-and-lamp model.
- Beginner
- 2–4 weeks
- Free
Chemistry + Nutrition and Food
Measure the vitamin C in fruit juices
Titrate juices with iodine and starch to compare how much vitamin C each contains.
- Intermediate
- 1 day
- Under 250
Cybersecurity + Pure Mathematics
Implement classic ciphers and break them
Write Caesar and substitution ciphers, then crack them with frequency analysis.
- Easy
- 2–7 days
- Free
Statistics and Probability · Probability
Estimate pi by dropping needles
Drop sticks on ruled paper, count how many cross a line and get an estimate of pi.
- Easy
- 1–3 hours
- Free
Environmental Science · Climate
Calculate your household's carbon footprint
Collect a month of electricity, fuel, travel and food data and convert it into kilograms of carbon dioxide.
- Easy
- 2–7 days
- Free
Biology · Botany
Compare the stomata of different leaves
Take nail-polish peels of leaves and count stomata on upper and lower surfaces.
- Easy
- 1–3 hours
- Under 250
Biology · Cell Biology
Observe osmosis in potato strips
Soak potato strips in salt solutions and find the concentration at which they neither gain nor lose mass.
- Easy
- 1 day
- Under 250
Pure Mathematics · Geometry
Prove the Pythagorean theorem five ways
Build paper dissections and algebraic proofs of the theorem and compare how each convinces.
- Easy
- 2–7 days
- Under 250
Biology + Sports and Exercise Science
Measure how exercise changes pulse rate and recovery
Record pulse before, during and after exercise for several volunteers and compare recovery times.
- Easy
- 1 day
- Free
Psychology · Cognitive Psychology
Measure the limits of short-term memory
Find how many digits people can repeat and whether grouping them helps.
- Easy
- 2–7 days
- Free
Nutrition and Food · Food Labels
Compare the nutrition labels of packaged snacks
Record the sugar, salt and fat in 20 snacks and rank them per 100 g and per pack.
- Easy
- 2–7 days
- Free
Physics · Current Electricity
Verify Ohm's law and find where it fails
Plot current against voltage for a resistor and a bulb and explain the difference.
- Easy
- 1–3 hours
- Under 250
Environmental Science + Physics
Compare the energy use of bulbs
Measure the brightness and heat of LED, CFL and filament bulbs and calculate the yearly cost of each.
- Easy
- 1–3 hours
- 250–500
Physics · Oscillations
Find g with a simple pendulum and a phone
Time pendulums of different lengths and get the acceleration due to gravity from a straight-line graph.
- Easy
- 1–3 hours
- Under 250
Astronomy and Space + Pure Mathematics
Measure the Earth's circumference like Eratosthenes
Measure a stick's shadow at local noon in two cities and calculate the size of the Earth.
- Intermediate
- 1 day
- Free
Chemistry · Analytical Chemistry
Separate ink colours with paper chromatography
Separate the dyes in marker pens on filter paper and calculate an Rf value for each colour.
- Beginner
- 1–3 hours
- Under 250
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