20 STEM Project Ideas for High School Students
For high school students passionate about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), hands-on projects are an excellent way to develop practical skills and learn to apply the concepts learned in school. STEM projects can deepen your understanding of basic concepts while promoting critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity.
From coding and robotics to environmental science and engineering challenges, STEM projects can cover a wide range of topics. While practical learning is a key benefit of completing a project, it can also help you with your college applications! In this blog, we've listed 20 engaging STEM project ideas tailored specifically for high school students.
1. Explore the applications of nanotechnology in containing oil spills
Field: Environmental Engineering
Experience Level: Intermediate
Oil spills can be extremely detrimental to marine life and the ocean’s health in general. One of the most unique ways of containing oil spills in any water body is to use ferrofluids – fluids with magnetic nanoparticles suspended in them.
This article from MIT can be great source material to help you understand the principles underlying ferrofluids. Apart from conducting a research project, you can also buy a kit from Sciencebuddies and take a first-hand look at how to convert an oily substance (here, mineral oil) into a ferrofluid and separate it from water.
2. DNA extraction from a fruit/vegetable
Field: Biology
Experience Level: Beginner
DNA extraction might sound complicated, but you’d be surprised to know that extracting DNA from household items like peas or strawberries is quite simple – and you can do it by yourself without any laboratory instruments! You will need a fruit, preferably something like a strawberry that can be crushed by hand.
This is what you’ll need: Dish soap / shampoo, salt, water, rubbing alcohol (chilled), a ziplock bag, a coffee filter or cheesecloth, a transparent glass or bowl, and a spoon. Once you have all the materials, you will need to follow these simple steps:
Mash the fruit or vegetable in a ziplock bag.
Mix 2 tsp dish soap, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 cup water.
Add the solution to the ziplock bag, seal, and mix gently.
Pour the mixture through a coffee filter into a glass.
Pour cold rubbing alcohol down the side of the glass to form a layer.
Wait a few minutes for the DNA to appear as white strands. Use a spoon to lift it out.
DNA is not soluble in alcohol, so it precipitates in the last step because crushing the strawberries breaks open many of the strawberry cells, where the DNA is. Soap breaks the membrane and DNA is let out in the mixture. Salt addition causes DNA to stick together and passing this mixture through a filter helps separate the fruit material from the DNA material. You can refer to this article to understand the process and the simple science behind this practical experience.
3. Explore the potential of biofuels
Field: Chemical Engineering
Experience Level: Intermediate
Dive into the production, benefits, and challenges of bio-derived fuels. Algal Biofuels are said to be the next promising avenue in biofuels, and you can find more about the research here.
You can conduct a reaction in your high school chemistry lab under supervision to better understand the basic chemistry behind making biofuels. All you’ll need is vegetable oil, methanol, and sodium hydroxide (NaOH). All the equipment you may need, such as beakers and heating mantles, can be found in the chemistry lab.
Mix the sodium hydroxide and methanol to form methoxide, which will react with the vegetable oil to get 3 methyl esters of fatty acids, which is essentially biodiesel. This article is a great resource to understand the chemistry and lab requirements for making biodiesel.
4. Understand saponification, the science of making soap
Field: Chemical Engineering
Experience Level: Intermediate
Saponification is the process of making soap from fats or oils. While the product formed during the saponification reaction is chemically soap, this will not be like the soap bar you use at home which comes with additives like color, perfumes, and raw materials like moisturizers.
This project can be conducted in your school’s chemistry lab, but you will need to follow proper lab etiquette and safety protocols, as sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is corrosive. Refer to this document to understand the process.
To begin, heat vegetable oil (such as olive oil or coconut oil) with a strong base like lye (sodium hydroxide). Stir continuously until the mixture thickens and becomes soap. Add essential oils or dried herbs for fragrance and color, if you wish to. Pour the soap into molds and let it cure for 2-4 weeks. Test different oil combinations and explore the chemistry behind saponification. Document the process, including pH changes, and compare the properties of your handmade soaps.
5. Studying the impact of lockdown measures on air quality in urban areas
Field: Environmental Engineering
Experience Level: Beginner
The COVID-19 lockdown saw a total shutdown of air travel during the initial phase, which resulted in an improvement in air quality in cities. You can refer to this article and begin your research. Comparing the data from the lockdown with the current scenario, you can pinpoint the biggest contributors to pollution and suggest what can be done to limit the amount of emissions. The data collected through this research project can form the basis for multiple projects to tackle pollution sources directly.
6. Social media analysis
Field: Psychology and Computer Science
Experience Level: Beginner
Analyzing the impact of social media usage on mental health in any age group is a growing concern in today’s society. You could perform an analysis by conducting surveys and interviews, and make inferences about the correlation between social media engagement and mental health indicators in that demographic.
7. Create an AI chatbot to help catch warning signs of mental health issues in students
Field: Computer Science
Experience Level: Intermediate
An AI chatbot could engage in conversations with students and ensure that if they’re struggling with depression or emotional distress, they get the help that they deserve and need. This project would involve using NLP, data processing, and possibly speech recognition if you want to create a project that is multi-modal and much more accessible. Detail the process of creating your chatbot and the responses to develop an interesting paper in the field of AI and mental health.
8. Explore modern chemical storage solutions
Field: Chemical Engineering
Experience Level: Intermediate
You can analyze different energy storage options and compare and contrast different technologies' chemistries, performance, lifetime, cost, geographic and resource constraints, and more. You can learn more about advanced storage solutions here.
While these advanced storage solutions can be a bit complicated to replicate by yourself in a lab, to understand the simple science behind cells, you can pursue a common experiment – creating a battery using coins!
To make a coin battery, stack zinc (like pennies) and copper (like nickels) coins with saltwater-soaked paper towels in between. The zinc and copper coins act as electrodes, and the wet paper towels as the electrolyte. Attach wires to the top and bottom coins to create terminals. This arrangement forms a voltaic cell that generates electricity through chemical reactions. You can increase the voltage by stacking multiple cells together.
9. Explore natural language processing (NLP) techniques in sentiment analysis
Field: Computer Science
Experience Level: Intermediate
Analyze how NLP techniques can be used to extract emotional tones and opinions in tweets. This research could be used to optimize parsing through content and make sure community guidelines are met. This Kaggle notebook is a great source for you to learn more about NLP and its applications in sentiment analysis of social media posts, especially tweets.
10. Investigating the growth patterns of different types of mold on food items
Field: Mycology
Experience Level: Intermediate
Mycology is the study of fungi, a group that includes mushrooms, yeasts, and even molds. If you’ve ever left bread out of the fridge for a bit too long, you must’ve seen it get covered in greenish-black mold in no time. But it’s not just about bread – mold can survive on any foods with a high acid content, such as fruits, pickles, jams, salt meats, and tomatoes.
So, if you’re interested in biology and microbial growth, you can start by observing the growth of mold right in your kitchen! To understand, you should only rely on visual observations, of how the mold spreads on different food items under similar conditions but for commercial purposes, you need to undertake sophisticated measurement techniques.
11. Explore the feasibility of mushroom-based leather
Field: Mycology
Experience Level: Intermediate
Leather, as a product, has been in existence for over millennia and the leather industry is well-established with a high demand. However, leather production is an energy and water-intensive process that accounts for 350 million cubic meters of discharged effluent annually. Finding a viable alternate source of leather can be a game changer in the industry and help organizations meet their sustainability targets.
One of the most promising sources of alternate leather is fungi, particularly, the mycelium, which is the root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. The process is not straightforward but researchers have worked on formulating a new paste substrate for the mushrooms to grow in, which enhanced nutrient availability and promoted thicker mycelial mats, which are essentially the raw material to form leather sheets.
12. Quantum computing
Field: Computer science
Experience Level: Intermediate
Quantum computing is a multidisciplinary field that utilizes aspects of computer science, physics, and mathematics alongside quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than classical computers. Quantum computing uses quantum bits, or qubits, which process information differently. This is an emerging field and makes for a great research area. You can explore how it can be used in AI and ML.
While the positive aspects of quantum computing are well known, experts are cautious of its use in hacking and especially cracking cryptographically encrypted data, which is said to be the most secure today. So, this opens up the avenue of researching ethical hacking in this domain. If you’re interested in learning more about ethical hacking and quantum computing, this research paper is a good place to start.
13. Tissue engineering in organ transplants
Field: Biomedical Engineering
Experience Level: Intermediate
Investigate the feasibility of lab-grown organs as a solution to donor shortages. The waitlist for finding a suitable organ donor is increasing every day, and one of the solutions proposed to deal with it is lab-grown organs or organoids, that are derived from stem cells. The RESTORE trial is a joint research initiative by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) and the University of Bristol, in 2022, conducted the first-ever clinical trial of laboratory-grown red blood cells being transfused into another person. You can read more about it here.
14. Explore the ethical implications of gene editing in humans
Field: Genetic engineering
Experience Level: Intermediate
The potential for gene therapy to address human disease has been evident for some years, and much progress has been made in its applications. This makes for an interesting research project. Gene editing has been extensively used in crops to increase their yields and make them resistant to microbial and pest attacks. This article from the FDA is a good source material to learn more about gene editing in plants.
Gene therapy refers to the replacement of faulty genes, or the addition of new genes as a means to cure disease or improve the ability to fight disease. Genome editing is one aspect of gene therapy. You can research how the general public feels about such technologies.
Sickle cell is the first disease that can be treated successfully, although, as of now, only the symptoms of the disease are treatable. This MIT review explains the breakthrough in great detail.
15. Explore the various uses and applications of robotic arms
Field: Robotic engineering
Experience Level: Advanced
Robotic arms are widely used across multiple industries thanks to their adaptability and precision. One of the first applications of robotics arms that you might think of is in modern production lines. But they are also being used, albeit with some software and hardware tweaks in the medical field, especially in surgeries and also in patient diagnosis.
You can build your own robotic arm in a few simple steps! Begin with planning your robot arm’s size, reach, and movement range. This will help you gather relevant supplies. You’ll need servos, a potentiometer (4 pieces), an Arduino UNO, and frame materials (like cardboard or plastic). Start by assembling a sturdy frame as per requirement, this will take a few attempts. Attach servo motors to the joints and connect batteries to servos and Arduino. Properly connect the wires, write code, and test your arm! Refer to this article for a detailed step-by-step guide.
16. Build a solar-powered mini car
Field: General engineering
Experience Level: Intermediate
Electric vehicles are coming into the mainstream and the next avenue people want to explore is the feasibility of solar-powered cars! Satellites and space probes already utilize solar energy extensively during their missions and researchers are exploring how to commercialize this technology for commuter cars. You can explore the current research in this field, starting with this article.
Using solar cells, alligator clip leads, a small electric motor, and various plastic materials, you can build a solar-powered miniature car! This small project will give you hands-on experience in building a basic car while also observing solar energy in action. This article from ScienceBuddies provides you with all the details required to get started on this project.
17. Conduct Mendel’s pea plant experiment
Field: Genetic engineering
Experience Level: Intermediate
Gregor Mendel, often called the father of genetics, conducted groundbreaking experiments with garden peas (Pisum sativum) to uncover the principles of inheritance. It is a classical experiment and has been used to teach the basics of inheritance. The good thing about this experiment is that it can be replicated and you can observe the results first-hand!
What you’ll need to do:
Select two contrasting traits in pea plants, such as seed color (yellow or green) and seed shape (round or wrinkled). Plant the parent generation (P) with different trait combinations. Allow them to self-pollinate and collect the seeds from each plant separately. Sow the seeds and observe the offspring (F1) generation. Then, allow the F1 plants to self-pollinate and collect the F2 generation seeds. Record the number of plants exhibiting each trait in the F2 generation and analyze the data to understand the inheritance patterns and confirm Mendel's principles of heredity.
18. Explore the feasibility of hydroponics at home
Field: Horticulture
Experience Level: Intermediate
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using nutrient-rich water solutions. The usage of an aggregate substrate, or growing media, such as vermiculite, coconut coir, or perlite is also included in this technique. Many crops are being grown commercially using this technique. You can learn more about it here and setting up a basic hydroponic system is quite easy!
You’ll need containers, a water pump, and grow lights. Fill containers with a growing medium like rock wool or clay pellets. Dissolve essential nutrients in water and circulate this solution to plant roots using the pump. Ensure proper lighting and monitor pH and nutrient levels. This project illustrates plant growth, efficient nutrient uptake, and water conservation, showcasing an alternative to traditional agriculture. Document plant growth, comparing it to soil-grown plants, which you should cultivate simultaneously.
19. Image Classifier
Field: Computer Science
Experience Level: Intermediate
Resources: TensorFlow Image Classification Tutorial
You can develop a program that classifies images into predetermined categories, such as animals, vegetables, tools, or buildings. To begin this project, you will need to gather a dataset of images divided into separate categories to help the program learn how to process the various objects or scenes within an image. This project is suited for students with basic programming knowledge and an interest in beginner-friendly AI automation.
20. Rock, Paper, Scissors Game
Field: Computer Science
Experience Level: Beginner
This is a classic computer science and AI project, recommended for students looking to apply some basic coding skills into practice. Before starting this project, it would be a good idea to look through this Stackoverflow post. You can design a simple game of rock, paper, and scissors where players compete against an AI opponent that relies on random number generation. This project can be created using conditional statements such as “if-else”, variable assignment, and user input/output. This project is ideal for students looking for a beginner-friendly AI experience, as it introduces basic programming techniques.
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Veritas AI was founded by Harvard graduate students, and through the programs, you get a chance to learn the fundamentals of AI and computer science while collaborating on real-world projects. You can also work 1-1 with mentors from universities like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and more to create unique, personalized projects. In the past year, we had over 1000 students learn data science and AI with us. You can apply here!