Step 1: Make many ideas
Take five minutes and write every idea you can, even silly ones. Look around you: home, school, your street, hobbies, problems that annoy you. Do not judge yet. A long list gives you something to choose from.
Step 2: Three filters (gates)
Test every idea against three gates:
- Interest: Do I really care about this? You will spend weeks on it.
- Time and means: Can I do it with my time, money, tools and help? "Cure a disease" or "build a rocket" fails here.
- Result: Can I measure something or show a clear product at the end? "Which colour is best?" fails because there is nothing to measure.
Ideas that pass all three gates are your candidates. If you love an idea that fails, shrink it until it can pass.
Step 3: Narrow the topic
A topic can be too wide, just right or too small. Make it narrower, one step at a time:
Water (too wide) โ Water at school (closer) โ Is the tap water in our school clean enough to drink? (just right).
A good topic is one question that you can answer with data or a product you can make in your time. If it is a tiny fact you can look up in one minute, it is too small.
Step 4: Write the goal
The goal is the target of your project, written as one clear sentence. A formula that works: I will [do or make] [what] for [whom] by [when].
Example: "By the end of term I will test the tap water at five places in school and tell the principal whether it is safe to drink."
A good goal is specific (what exactly), measurable (you can tell when it is done), possible in your time, and useful to someone.
Step 5: Split the goal into tasks
Tasks (also called objectives) are the small steps that lead to the goal. Each task starts with an action word and has an end: "Read about safe water", "Test water from five taps", "Record the results in a table", "Write and present a short report". Four to six tasks are enough. Put them in order and give each one a date.
Try it: shrink a topic
Pick a big topic you like (for example "Music" or "Plastic"). Shrink it three times until it is one question. Write the goal sentence and four tasks. Then slide the topic-size slider in the 3D to compare your topic with the examples.
Key formulas and definitions
- Three gates: Interest, Time and means, Result you can measure or show.
- Narrowing: wide topic โ closer topic โ one question.
- Goal sentence: I will [do/make] [what] for [whom] by [when].
- Good goal: specific, measurable, doable, useful, with a date.
- Tasks: 4 to 6 small steps, each starting with an action word.
Worked examples
1. Is "Space" a good project topic? Why or why not?
No. It is far too wide, so no one can finish it. Narrow it, for example to "How does the length of day change over a year where I live?"
2. Which gate does "Which colour is best?" fail?
The result gate. "Best" has no clear way to measure it. Change it to "Which colour of paper do 30 classmates find easiest to read?" and you can count the answers.
3. Write a goal sentence for a project on food waste in your school canteen.
"By the end of March I will weigh the food thrown away in our canteen for ten school days and suggest two ways to reduce it to the canteen manager."
4. A project has 12 weeks and 4 equal tasks. How many weeks does each task get? If you test 5 taps with 3 samples each, how many samples is that?
12 / 4 = 3 weeks per task. 5 ร 3 = 15 samples.
Common mistakes
- Choosing a topic that is too big, like "Water" or "Space". Narrow it to one question.
- Choosing a topic with nothing to measure or show. Always ask what the result will be.
- Mixing up topic and goal. The topic is the area; the goal is what you will do in it.
- Writing tasks that are too big or vague, like "Do the project". Make each task small with a clear end.