A good research project idea can engage your students and increase learning quickly. There’s no need to always have students complete the same informational reports each and every time they do a research project. Teaching students to write informational reports and complete research projects can be fun for both you and your students. Boring projects are no longer!
Are you looking for additional ways to engage your students? I have created a guide just for you! In this guide, you will find 20 student engagement strategies that you can easily implement in your classroom today! Simply drop your name and email below, and I will send this Student Engagement Guide straight to your inbox.
Give Students Voice and Choice
One way to engage students in a research project is to give your students voice and choice. This can be done in several ways, but student voice and choice will almost always increase the engagement of a lesson or project.
Choice of Topics for Research Project
Depending on the purpose of your research project, you can have students choose what they will be researching. If the purpose of your research project is to have students write an informational essay based on your grade-level standards, students can choose what they will be researching. Think about it, if your purpose is a writing standard, the topic doesn’t necessarily matter. Let your students choose their topic and you will find that engagement increases.
Now, sometimes just having an open topic selection is too much for students. The age and maturity level of your students can determine how wide the choice of topics should be. Some students are not ready to be told just to choose what they will research. Many need a guide of some sort. In some cases, it may be appropriate to give students only two choices. This can scaffold students who are not as strong of writers, or students who have a hard time coming up with ideas of what to write. Other times, it may be beneficial to have more choices. Maybe students have a choice of 5 animals that they can study. Generally, even this little bit of choice increases engagement and creates a research project that is fun for students.
Choice of Product to Complete
Choosing what to research is not the only choice that you can give students. Sometimes a research project is content specific. For example, if your students were completing a research project on a grade-level science standard, they will most likely all be researching the same concept. It may feel like you can’t provide a choice in a case like this, but the truth is, you can! This is one of my favorite ways to provide choice for students.
Students do not all have to complete the same type of product for a research project. Similar to what we discussed above, think about your purpose. If your purpose is for students to understand specific content, they can show their understanding in many different ways. Let your students choose a final product that speaks to them, and interests them. You will be amazed at the end results when students are interested in what they are creating. We will talk about different products that can be done later in this post.
Give Students a Choice in the Learning
Students often like to learn in unique ways. Some students prefer a video. Others may prefer to read an article or book about a topic. There may even be students that like to learn through graphics. Give students the option to learn how they like. Help them find videos, articles, graphics, etc. that fit their learning style. The freedom to learn how they please will create a high level of both learning and engagement.
Use a Variety of Topics for Research Project
There are so many good research project topics. The trickiest part is deciding what would be best for your students while also hitting your standards and content. There are a few ways to narrow down the best topics for informational reports or research projects.
Connect to Your State Standards
It is hard to teach every grade-level state standard that you are given. It can almost feel impossible. A great way to choose a topic is to dive into your standards. What content needs to be taught? What content can students learn about by doing their own research?
A great place to start is to look at your social studies and science standards. These standards are often full of content. Content-rich standards are a great place to find topics for a research project.
Use Current Events for a Research Project Idea
There is always a lot going on in the world. Use this to your advantage. Kids are highly engaged by current events in the classroom. These current events could be something related to government or politics. Other current events often revolve around technology or social media. Social media is always an interesting topic for kids! Maybe there was a natural disaster. Let students dive deep and research the causes and effects of this. The moral here is to pay attention to what is happening and use these events to create an amazing research project idea.
What are Your Students Interested In?
Are you ready to really spark student engagement? Find out what your students are interested in! Is there a particular song your students are obsessed with? There is a research project idea! Research the lyrics and the meanings behind them. Maybe students can research the artist and write a biography about them. The possibilities are almost endless.
Do you have students who are athletes? Let them complete a research project on their favorite sport. They could learn about the history of the sport. How it came to be. They may even learn that rules have changed over time.
Students have so many interests. Capitalize on those and create a research project that is fun and engaging for students to complete. They may even ask for more projects after this.
Use More Than Essays for Informational Reports
When we think of an informational report, most of us probably think of a traditional written essay. I would dare say this is the most common type of product that comes out of any research project idea. There are many reasons for this, that we won’t get into today. I do not believe that a written informational report is bad by any means. They are necessary! They are crucial to developing good writers that are successful both now and in the future. What I am saying is that not every research project has to result in a written informational report. There are other ways for students to demonstrate their learning.
3D Projects or Models
This is something that I have seen students have a lot of fun with. Students love to create with hands-on materials. From the youngest of learners to high school seniors, many students love creating with their hands. There are so many research project ideas that can incorporate 3D models.
One option for 3D models is to have students create something out of clay. I have seen students create models of animals, complete solar systems, and even models of Native American homes.
Students can also create dioramas to demonstrate their learning of specific content. For this, students can use a wide range of materials to create a diorama. These dioramas work great for geography, animal habitats or ecosystems, landforms, or even architecture. Your students may have some creative ideas for research project dioramas.
My favorite 3D project that my students have done was parade floats. These aren’t the size of floats in an actual parade, but rather a smaller replica. We used our parade floats to demonstrate our knowledge about specific Utah counties. Students researched the county that they chose, given specific parameters of what information was needed for the project. After their notes were taken and their information was compiled, they created their county floats. They had a blast creating them, but the best part was parading them and displaying them for the rest of the school to see.
Technology-Based Informational Reports
With technology changing and expanding every day, there are an endless amount of products that can be completed using technology for research reports. I’ll share a few of my favorites here. The first is to have students create a series of social media posts. These could each use a paragraph from a written informational report. This way you are still incorporating the writing, but students are having fun creating, also.
Students can use video to create different types of projects. There are many possibilities including a movie trailer, a stop-motion production, an iMovie, a video presentation, etc. A benefit of having students record themselves reading their writing… they notice their errors, creating a much better piece of writing.
There is always the option of a digital presentation. Digital presentations can be done in many different formats including PowerPoint, Google Slides, Prezi, or Canva. Let your students’ creative juices flow using technology.
High student engagement is critical to achieving high levels of learning. A good research project idea can increase engagement, encourage students to want to learn more, and in turn provide more opportunities for success. You can find additional ways to engage students in this post.
Meanwhile, for even more student engagement strategies, drop your name and email below. I will send my Student Engagement Guide packed with 20 strategies that you can implement today straight to your inbox!