1029 science project ideas, from class 1 to college.

What it shows

RANK orders students by total and VLOOKUP fetches one student’s full record by roll number to fill a report card. It shows how lookup formulas turn a data table into a report.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• A spreadsheet program: LibreOffice Calc (free) or Google Sheets (free)
• Made-up marks of 20 students with roll numbers in five subjects
• A notebook and a pencil

Take it further: Replace VLOOKUP with INDEX and MATCH and explain why it still works when the key is not in the first column.

What it shows

Two formulas grow the same sum at the same rate, one adding the same interest each year and one adding interest on interest. The chart shows compounding pulling ahead with time.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• A spreadsheet program: LibreOffice Calc (free) or Google Sheets (free)
• A made-up amount, for example Rs 10,000 at 8 percent a year (use rates from a bank notice board for real values)
• A notebook and a pencil

Take it further: Add a column for compounding every six months, using (1 + r/200)^(2n), and compare.

What it shows

Daily maximum temperatures are coloured from cool to hot with a colour scale and summarised with AVERAGE, MAX and MIN. It shows how colour helps people see patterns in numbers.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• A spreadsheet program: LibreOffice Calc (free) or Google Sheets (free)
• Daily maximum temperatures for your town for 30 days from a newspaper, a weather website or an outdoor thermometer in the shade
• A notebook and a pencil

Take it further: Add a second month and compare the two heat maps and averages side by side.

What it shows

Points from many events are added for each house with SUMIF, ranked and drawn as a bar chart. It shows how one list of results can produce a summary.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• A spreadsheet program: LibreOffice Calc (free) or Google Sheets (free)
• A made-up list of 20 results with event, position and house, and four house names (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow)
• A notebook and a pencil

Take it further: Add team events with double points using a column of multipliers and include it in the SUMPRODUCT formula.

What it shows

An anonymous survey of habits, such as sharing passwords or reusing one everywhere, gives percentages and a bar chart. It shows which habits put accounts at risk and how to improve them.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• A spreadsheet program: LibreOffice Calc (free) or Google Sheets (free)
• A paper form with 6 yes or no questions, and 30 classmates who agree to answer
• Teacher’s permission to run the survey
• A notebook and a pencil

Safety: Never ask anyone for their actual password. Questions must be about habits only, answers must be anonymous, and a teacher must agree to the survey.

Take it further: Teach a class of younger children one password rule with a short skit and test whether they remember it a week later.

What it shows

A set of made-up messages, some genuine-looking and some fake, is sorted by friends using a checklist, and the results show which tricks work best. It teaches how to recognise phishing and scam messages.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• A word processor or presentation program (free), such as LibreOffice or Google Docs
• 12 made-up messages you write yourself, 6 safe and 6 scams, with invented names and no real brands
• Ten volunteers
• A notebook and a pencil

Safety: Use only invented messages and never real company logos, phone numbers or links. Do not send fake messages to anyone, and a teacher must approve the test.

Take it further: Compare how well different age groups do and show the result in a chart.

What it shows

Daily screen time for study, play and chat is logged for a week, averaged and charted, then a plan is made and tested. It teaches self-observation and healthy habits with data.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• A spreadsheet program: LibreOffice Calc (free) or Google Sheets (free)
• A phone that shows screen time, or a simple paper log with a clock
• A parent or teacher to talk to about the plan
• A notebook and a pencil

Safety: This is a personal diary; share only what you are comfortable with. Take breaks from the screen every 30 minutes and look at distant things to rest your eyes.

Take it further: Add a column for hours of sleep and see whether late screen use matches shorter sleep.

What it shows

Forwarded claims are checked with a three-step method: who says it, when, and what do reliable sources say. It teaches how to stop false information from spreading.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• A browser and the websites of established newspapers, a government health or science department and recognised fact-checking organisations
• Five forwarded messages or claims from family groups (copy the text, remove names and numbers)
• A notebook and a pencil

Safety: Do not click links inside suspicious messages, and never forward a message you have not checked. Remove personal details before sharing any text in class.

Take it further: Run a quick test: show the same claim with and without a source to classmates and see which they believe more.

What it shows

Twenty questions with known answers are put to an AI chatbot and the answers are checked against textbooks, giving an accuracy percentage and a list of confident mistakes. It shows that AI can be useful but must be verified.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• A free AI chatbot that your school or family allows, used with an adult present
• A textbook, atlas or reliable reference for checking
• A spreadsheet program: LibreOffice Calc (free) or Google Sheets (free)
• A notebook and a pencil

Safety: Use the chatbot with an adult, never type your name, address, school or photos, and follow the age rules of the tool.

Take it further: Repeat the test a month later or with a second chatbot and compare accuracy.

What it shows

A free browser tool learns to tell a pencil, an eraser and a sharpener from webcam examples, and testing shows how the number and variety of examples change accuracy. It teaches how machine learning learns from data.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• A computer with a webcam and Google’s Teachable Machine at teachablemachine.withgoogle.com (free, runs in the browser)
• Three stationery items: a pencil, an eraser and a sharpener
• A plain background such as a sheet of white paper
• A notebook and a pencil

Safety: Point the camera only at the objects and not at faces. Read what the tool says about where images are stored and do not save the project online with images of people.

Take it further: Add a fourth class called nothing with only the empty background so the model can say that no object is present.

What it shows

Apps on a phone are checked for the permissions they hold, such as camera, microphone and location, and compared with what they need. It teaches how to protect privacy by limiting access.

You will need

• A family phone with its owner’s permission and a parent or teacher present
• The phone’s Settings page for Apps and Permissions or Privacy
• A spreadsheet program: LibreOffice Calc (free) or Google Sheets (free)
• A notebook and a pencil

Safety: Only audit a phone with its owner’s agreement and an adult present. Do not change settings on a phone you do not own, and do not note down any passwords or personal data.

Take it further: Repeat after a month and see whether any apps changed their permissions after an update.

What it shows

Short paragraphs written by students and by an AI tool are mixed and shown to volunteers who guess the author. The results show how hard it is to tell and what clues people use.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• A free AI tool used with an adult, a word processor and a spreadsheet
• 6 short paragraphs of 80 words on a simple topic, written by students
• Twenty volunteers
• A notebook and a pencil

Safety: Use the AI tool with an adult and give it no personal details. Show paragraphs without names and use the test only for learning, never to accuse anyone of cheating.

Take it further: Test whether a longer paragraph is easier to identify than a short one.

What it shows

A flowchart with decision diamonds and a loop describes the steps of an ATM withdrawal, including three PIN attempts and a balance check. It shows how to plan an algorithm before coding it.

You will need

• A4 sheets, a pencil, a ruler and an eraser (household)
• A flowchart template of symbols drawn by you: oval, rectangle, parallelogram and diamond
• Coloured pens for yes and no arrows (optional)
• A free flowchart tool such as diagrams.net, only if you want a digital copy

Take it further: Translate the flowchart into a Python program using a while loop and an if for each diamond.

What it shows

Eight number cards are sorted by two methods while counting comparisons and swaps. It shows how different algorithms reach the same answer with different amounts of work.

You will need

• Eight small paper cards numbered with random numbers from 1 to 50 (cut from old paper)
• A table, a notebook and a pencil
• A friend to count and check

Take it further: Write bubble sort in Python with nested for loops and count its swaps with a variable, then check against your hand count.

What it shows

Five cards with dots for 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 show any number up to 31 by turning cards face up or down. It teaches how computers store numbers using only on and off, which are the digits 1 and 0.

You will need

• Five pieces of card or thick paper about 10 cm by 10 cm (old cartons are fine)
• A marker pen and a small round sticker or a pen for dots
• A table and a friend to test
• A notebook and a pencil

Take it further: Write your age and your birthday in binary and make a secret message by writing letters as numbers from 1 to 26 in binary.

What it shows

Looking for a roll number in a sorted list is done one by one and then by halving, and the steps are counted. It shows why binary search is so much faster for large lists.

You will need

• A sorted list of 64 roll numbers written on a sheet or in a spreadsheet
• A coin or a pencil to mark the current guess
• A notebook and a friend to pick the target number
• A notebook and a pencil

Take it further: Write both searches in Python for a list of 1000 numbers and count steps with a variable.

What it shows

Three linked tables for books, members and loans answer questions such as who has which book, using a JOIN. It shows how real databases avoid repeating data.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• DB Browser for SQLite (free and open source) or a free online SQLite page that runs in the browser
• Made-up data: 8 books, 6 members and 8 loans
• A notebook and a pencil

Take it further: Add a fine column and a query that calculates fines of Rs 2 per day using julianday for the dates.

What it shows

One items table answers questions on stock value by category, items running low and best selling price using WHERE, GROUP BY and ORDER BY. It shows how a shop can manage stock with simple queries.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• DB Browser for SQLite (free) or a free online SQLite page
• A made-up list of 15 grocery items with category, quantity and price
• A notebook and a pencil

Take it further: Add a sales table and a JOIN to show the profit per item as sold quantity times the price difference.

What it shows

Players and match scores in two tables give totals, averages and strike rates with JOIN, GROUP BY and HAVING. It shows how statistics in sports are calculated by queries.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• DB Browser for SQLite (free) or a free online SQLite page
• Scores of 8 players in 5 matches from your school or street team, or made up
• A notebook and a pencil

Take it further: Add a bowling table with wickets and runs conceded and compute economy rate.

What it shows

Routes and riders are stored in two tables, and queries give riders per route, fare income and routes with nobody on them using LEFT JOIN. It teaches the difference between inner and outer joins.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• DB Browser for SQLite (free) or a free online SQLite page
• Made-up data: 5 routes and 20 student riders with no real names
• A notebook and a pencil

Take it further: Add a drivers table and show the driver, area and riders for each route with two joins.

What it shows

A class bundles data and actions for an account, and the code raises errors for overdrawing. It introduces object oriented programming with a familiar example.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• Python 3 with IDLE, or the free Thonny editor, or an online Python runner (all free)
• Only made-up names and balances for testing
• A notebook and a pencil

Safety: This is a practice program with made-up money. Never enter real bank details into any practice program.

Take it further: Create a SavingsAccount class that inherits from Account and adds a method to add yearly interest.

What it shows

One program finds primes with the Sieve of Eratosthenes and generates Fibonacci numbers whose consecutive ratio settles near 1.618. It links number patterns to loops and lists.

You will need

• A computer, laptop or phone with a browser (free)
• Python 3 with IDLE, or the free Thonny editor, or an online Python runner (all free)
• A notebook and a pencil

Take it further: Plot the primes below 100 as a spiral using turtle (Ulam spiral) and look for diagonal lines.

What it shows

Farmers and city planners ask whether the monsoon is changing. A student can download a public rainfall data set, clean it with pandas and plot monthly averages, yearly totals and a trend line, which teaches data cleaning, statistics and honest conclusions.

You will need

• A laptop with Python 3, pandas, matplotlib and Jupyter or Thonny
• A free monthly rainfall data set for an Indian district or state from an open government data portal or meteorological source (downloaded as CSV)
• A notebook for the report
• Internet only to download the data

Safety: Download data only from official public portals and check the licence terms. Back up your work regularly.

Take it further: Compare two districts and test whether their yearly rainfall changes are correlated using a correlation coefficient.

What it shows

A school or a mohalla library often keeps records in a register, and books get lost. A small relational database with books, members and loans tables lets a student issue, return and search books and see overdue lists, which teaches design with primary and foreign keys.

You will need

• A laptop with Python 3 (the sqlite3 module is built in)
• DB Browser for SQLite (free) to inspect the tables
• A text editor or Thonny
• A list of 50 real or sample books, 20 sample members in a CSV
• A notebook for the entity relationship diagram

Safety: Use only sample or consented member data, not real students’ personal details. Keep a backup of the database file.

Take it further: Add a Tkinter or Flask front end so that a librarian can use mouse and forms instead of the terminal.