Irving School's Academic Fair
  
Parent and Student Support: Choose a Topic

About the Fair

About the Egg-Drop Contest 

Fair Rules

Registration

Types of Projects

Choose a Topic

Develop a Question

Answer the Question

Present at the Fair

Schedule for Day of Fair

Frequently Asked Questions

Links

Return to Home Page

How to Choose an Interesting Topic

Academic Fair projects can be based on the out-of-school interests of children or on reports or projects they have done for school.  Children can develop projects about almost any subject that interests them, including:

Since you need both a topic and a question for your child's project, perhaps the easiest way to get started is to talk about things your child has been wondering about.  If your child says, "I've always wondered why I sweat" or "I wonder why the ink on most newspapers doesn't transfer to Silly Putty but the ink on sales flyers does," then you can skip to the next page to help them further develop their question.

If your child hasn't been wondering about a particular question, try talking with them about the things that intrigue or interest them.  What have they seemed curious about in the past?  What do they like to do once their homework is done?  What was the most fun on their last vacation?  That may help them think about a topic for an investigation.

Children may have problems narrowing their interests.  If that's the case, try breaking their topic into smaller subtopics that they can investigate in enough depth to be satisfying.  Examples might help:

• "Cars" is too big a topic.  However, they could do a reasonably sized project on how a speedometer works or where they make cars in Chicago.
   
• "The Underground Railroad" is too big a topic.  However, they could do a project on where stations were located in the Chicago area or on how they hid escaped slaves at a particular station.
    
• "Sharks" is too big a topic.  However, they could do a project on how sharks digest their food or on what kinds of sharks are dangerous to people.

If your child is still stuck, ask them to talk through their ideas with a teacher or another adult.  (The Academic Fair parent organizers would be happy to help.)

Finally, if your child is still having problems coming up with a topic, you can check these websites that list potential topics.
  

Remember, once your child has selected a subject area, the key steps will be to:

• Choose a fairly narrow topic within that subject area.  That's important because your child will have to complete the project in just a few weeks time.
    
• Take that topic and develop it into an interesting research question, because this fair is about both interests AND inquiries.  

Once your child has chosen a suitable topic, go here to learn more about developing a research question.