What is CABS?

This site will help high school students and teachers find original, independent science research topics and questions that can be done without a professional lab...these can be done in a school lab or even in one's basement! The project ideas and research questions being developed and presented here have been vetted and could lead to true discoveries, and not just finding already known results. See our Welcome message. These are the types of projects that could be done and submitted to high school contests such as the Regeneron Science Talent Search, Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, or the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, and be competitive. If you have an idea to share, or a question about one of the project ideas, contact us at vondracekm@eths202.org.

Pages (on the right side of the screen) have lists of ideas for different types of science research projects, and clicking on one of those ideas will take you to posts with details and all sorts of information about that type of project. Get more information about why there is a need for CABS!

Resources for Students

Science research in high school is the ultimate experience a student can have. And by research, this does NOT mean typical high school lab activities you might do in one or two periods, but rather longer term work on something that is not necessarily known - the goal of this site is to help you find a topic and very specific research question that you can take on and try to literally discover something new. And the kicker is to do this without the need of professional labs or equipment! We hope you can do this in your school or in your home, with everyday materials. Or, perhaps do this on a computer at school or at home with computational work or accessing data sets that are online.

Go to the various pages of this site and you will find many research questions we have formed and provided initial information and suggestions in order to help you get started. Typically, the hardest part of the research process for anyone is to find that specific question that has not been looked at before in a serious study - here, you have many options in a variety of fields of study, so have fun with it, find something of interest to you, and think about how you can design and setup controlled experiments to collect data and possibly an answer to the question! DO THE PROCESS OF SCIENCE, from start to finish, and look for that answer that no one else knows! As you get ideas, it is useful to consider the various facets of a research project - check out considerations of developing a research proposal.

 Here are some resources. 

Get experimental ideas here. Also, look at project titles and abstracts using the contest links below.
Get computational/theoretical ideas here.
Get ideas for existing online data sets here.

What are the sections of a Research Report? Click on Research Report Structure.

Research Method: Using Video to collect data and make measurements. Video is so common now that cell phones have decent cameras, and with analysis software that is online and free to download, anyone can use video to collect data and make measurements in order to do an analysis. Many of the CABS projects will end up using video.

What is the difference between 'word problems,' such as what you tend to do in math and science classes for nightly homework sets, and 'math modeling' or 'computational research' problems (which tend to be more complex, and often with no one answer!) that you would tend to do over an extended period of time?

Find out what students are doing around the country:
First, check out nationally recognized projects from some of the biggest U.S. science contests for high schools, the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS; formerly sponsored by Intel) and the International Science and Engineering  Fair (ISEF), as well as the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS). This is a good way to get ideas and see what is possible. Note: Almost all of these were done in professional labs, so if you are from a school and community not near a research institution, chances are you would not be able to do physical experiments related to most of these projects. With CABS, you can find original projects that are doable without professional labs, and therefore be able to do real research and possibly enter these competitions, if you so choose.

Regeneron Science Talent Search (Formerly the Intel STS - Check out what some top projects were about, get ideas)
2018 Regeneron Semifinalist Project Titles
2017 Regeneron Finalist Project Descriptions
2017 Regeneron Semifinalist Project Titles
2016 Intel Finalist Project Descriptions
2016 Intel Semifinalist Project Titles
2015 Intel Finalist Project Descriptions
2015 Intel Semifinalist Project Titles
2014 Intel Finalist Project Descriptions
2014 Intel Semifinalist Project Titles
2013 Intel Finalist Project Descriptions
2013 Intel Semifinalist Project Titles
Check out any year of the Science Talent Search dating back to 1942! Project ideas galore!

Siemens Science Competition (Check out what some top projects were about, get ideas)
2017 Finalists *Note that 2017 was the last year for this competition
2017 Regional Finals (see abstracts)
2016 Finalists
2016 Regional Finals (see abstracts)
2015 Finalists
2015 Regional Finalists (see abstracts)
2013 Finalists
2012 Finalists
2011 Finalists (see Julia and Patrick!)
Links to past year's winning students and project descriptions

Research Contests
Regeneron Science Talent Search, deadline mid-November
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)
Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (Loyola's site), deadline late January
Davidson Fellowship (in the area of Science)

Research Publications
Students can submit their research papers to the following journals for publication:


  • *Note that many CABS projects can be used by other teachers as lab demos, students labs, or inquiry projects for their students. You might consider writing a paper, co-authored between student and teacher, and submit to teacher professional journals, such as The Physics Teacher or The Science Teacher.

For those with the means of trying to apply to and attend a summer research program:

Research Programs
Fermilab TARGET Summer Internship (for underrepresented juniors)
IMSA's Mentor Matching Engine (for students in Illinois)
Northwestern CURE Summer Research Program (for underrepresented seniors)
Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists (Boston U)
REAP Application at Loyola University at Chicago
Research Science Institute (at MIT)
Rockefeller University's Summer Science Research Program
Secondary Student Training at the U. of Iowa
S'COOL Site - Student Cloud Observation OnLine; help NASA confirm cloud satellite data from
                        ground observations, a 'Citizen Science' project
Space Tango - focus on microgravity experiments, a partner with International Space Station (ISS)
Stanford Institutes of Medical Summer Research Program
Summer Science Program (run by Caltech)
Zoouniverse - Site of dozens of  'Citizen Science' or 'People Powered' online projects

For Chicagoland area students, Northwestern University STEM Departments: 
To find experts, project ideas, possible use of equipment for measurements, contacts to provide journal articles we cannot access, get students into labs, lab tours, have grad students come into classes, etc.
    For anyone in other areas of the country or in different countries, it is recommended you look at any nearby universities, industrial companies or businesses with R&D, research hospitals, national labs, or any other institutions that would have STEM experts, and do a similar search. STEM experts and researchers are usually willing to talk and help out with students projects if you contact them.

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