Plant Science Fair Projects: 20 Ideas of Plant Science Fair Projects for High School Students
Science fairs are a great opportunity for students to dive into a scientific topic that interests them, allowing students to conduct their own research and create a project to show the public, friends, and family. Curious high school students who are interested in plant science — including plant biology, ecology, and more — may be interested in pursuing a science fair project on plant research. In this blog post, we are sharing different ideas for plant science fair projects for high school students.
Benefits of Participating in Science Fairs and Competitions
Science fairs are a great way to explore your passions, and creating a plant science fair project is a great opportunity for high school students to showcase their knowledge and understanding of this topic.
Participating in a science fair can teach you many valuable skills and lessons, including:
Learning how to properly and effectively conduct research
Developing public speaking skills through presenting your project
Networking with mentors and other students who have similar interests as you
Learning about other types of science — or learning more about plant science by viewing other project examples
Winning a prize to help you continue learning about this area of study
Demonstrating your interest in plant science to colleges, future internships, and other academic and pre-professional programs
How to Create Your Plant Science Fair Project
Step 1: Pick a topic you are interested in
By showing initial interest in creating a plant science fair project, you are already halfway there!
Consider combining your interest in plants with other scientific interests. For example, if you are also interested in biology, consider creating a plant science fair project where you study the biology of plants and how they grow. Or, you can begin to do some preliminary research about plants to find a specific topic that you are curious to explore.
By working on a project that genuinely interests you, the science fair process will most likely feel easier and more enjoyable.
If you are looking for ideas on how to choose a project topic, consider borrowing one of the ideas on our list of 20 plant science fair projects below!
Step 2: Create a research question
Once you have selected a topic idea, you can begin brainstorming potential research questions. High quality research questions often start with “why?” and “how?” Begin the brainstorming process by writing down as many questions as you can. Having an overarching research question for your plant science fair project will help guide you when conducting your own research.
Step 3: Conduct research
Research is critical to developing a high quality project. In fact, the bulk of your time spent working on your plant science fair project will occur during the research stage. To conduct research, you may choose to develop your own scientific experiment. You may also choose to explore scientific research online or in science textbooks about plants. As you work through the research process, be sure to take detailed notes about your topic. These notes will help you formulate an answer to your research question!
Step 4: Putting it all together
Once you have conducted your research around your research question, you can begin to put together your project presentation for submission to a science fair. Many high school students choose to showcase their project using a science fair poster presentation. For example, you can organize your poster board with pictures, drawings, diagrams, and, of course, your research process/abstract. Some students may even choose to bring a 3D model, a plant, or experiment to showcase.
20 Ideas of Plant Science Fair Projects for High School Students
Now that we have discussed some ideas for getting started on creating your own plant science fair project, let’s take a look at some project examples for high school students!
Plants + Technology: Research how to grow a plant using technology. Create your own experiment.
Research Fertilizers: Compare different fertilizers and study plant growth to see which fertilizers work the best.
Plant Cells: Create a 3D model of a plant cell and show an understanding and explanation of how a plant grows.
Plant Impact: Combine your plant research with other industries, such as researching how plants are being used in clothing and other businesses.
Plant Focus: You could even focus on a specific plant and research it, like the Venus Fly Trap!
Plant Growth: Study what factors could hinder a plant’s growth or, on the other hand, cause a plant to grow faster.
Flowers: Research flowers and how they get their color.
Plant Medicine: See how certain plants or herb and their characteristics allow them to have medical benefits.
Weather Impact: Research how extreme weather conditions affect plants.
Plants + Animals: Research the relationship between plants and animals and gain more insight to how they coexist in the same environment.
Variables in Plant Growth: Study what happens if you take away a factor that is considered vital to a plant’s growth
Plant Growth Experiments: Study how a plant grows, and give an in-depth, scientific explanation for how the plant growing process works.
Fruits + Vegetables: You could also consider fruits and vegetables as plants: a very famous science fair project is a battery powered by potatoes! You could complete this, and explain why it works using your knowledge in plant science.
Gardening: Maybe you will grow a garden of different plants and keep a journal of your observations.
Plans + Their Environment: Different types of plants thrive in different types of environments, using different types of resources. What would happen if you compared these plants and/or switched their environments and resources? See what would happen to these individual plants and mark your observations over time.
Growth Experiment: Can you make a plant grow faster or slower?
Plant Characteristics: See how accurately you can guess what type of plant something is by finding key characteristics of each unknown plant. Record how good your guesses were and explain the distinguishing characteristics of the plants that you studied.
Flower Colors: Change the color of flowers and give an in-depth, scientific explanation for why this happens.
Plants + Food: Grow your own fruits and vegetables and research if this is truly a better source of nutrients for humans than non-organic foods.
Human Impact: Study how man-made creations affect the growing of plants.
You may also like this blog post on Engineering Science Fair Projects.
How to Enter Into a Science Fair or Competition
Science fairs typically are open-ended in terms of content and scientific area of focus. Because of this, you should be able to enter your plant science project into most science fairs.
To enter your project into a science fair, consider the following:
Contact your science teachers and see if your school is holding a science fair.
Look up opportunities for science fairs and competitions in your local town or area.
Research and apply to some more well-known national competitions.
Research and apply to local science fairs.
If you decide that you are interested in displaying your plant science fair project at one of these competitions, try to find some way to register or sign up online or in-person (if it is being done through your school or local town or area).
No matter what the outcome of the science fair will be, it is a great opportunity to further develop your interest in plant science and a great research experience for someone interested in plant sciences!
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
