Student Projects in the Environmental Sciences

Listed below are a few ideas for student projects, linked to Cornell resources providing background information and research protocols for use by students and teachers:

Water

• Study local streams and their watersheds
• Investigate sormwater runoff, including using web-GIS to map roadsite ditches
• Build your own rainmaker and use it to study runoff and infiltration

Waste

• Investigate the biology, chemistry, and/or physics of composting, using indoor or outdoor compost systems
• Learn about bioremediation, and conduct experiments on bioremediation of nitrate in groundwater
• Conduct experiments on microbiology of decay

Toxicology

• Use bioassays to investigate the toxicity of household products, common chemicals, or environmental samples
• Think about chemical risk, along with other types of risks we face in our daily lives

Invasive Species

• Learn about ecology through investigating purple loosestrife and other invasive species

Gardening

• Study genetics using common food plants
• Explore the science of gardening, and investigate the interactions of plants, people, and cultures through gardening
• Investigate the effects of compost on plant growth
• Try hydroponics - grow your own plants without soil
• Use seeds to study plant adaptations, biodiversity, and ecosystem stability

Ecological Monitoring

• Interpret long-term data to investigate ecosystem change over time