CEE Editorial Team · 1 Nov 2026, 1:15 pm PKT

The best science projects start with a question the student genuinely does not know the answer to, and end with a measurement. Here are thirty of them, grouped by level and chosen so that the materials are available in any Pakistani town and the experiment can be done in a few weeks. Each one can be scaled up or down.

Early primary (Grades 1–3): Little Explorers level

1. Which container keeps water coolest in the sun: clay matka, steel, plastic or glass? Measure with a thermometer every hour.
2. Do seeds sprout faster in the dark or the light? Same seeds, same water, two shoeboxes.
3. Which paper towel or cloth absorbs the most water? Weigh before and after.
4. How far does a toy car roll from ramps of different heights?
5. Which material blocks sound best: cardboard, cloth, foam or a steel lid? Use a phone timer app that measures loudness.

Upper primary (Grades 4–5): Young Innovators level

6. Does the colour of a bottle affect how quickly water inside heats up in the sun?
7. How does the amount of salt in water change whether an egg floats?
8. Which household liquid cleans a tarnished copper coin best: lemon, vinegar, cola or soap water?
9. Does a plant grow more with tap water, filtered water or water with a pinch of fertiliser?
10. How does the length of a pendulum string change its swing time?
11. Which bridge shape made from the same number of ice-lolly sticks holds the most weight?

Middle school (Grades 6–8): Junior Scientists level

12. How does the angle of a small solar panel affect the voltage it produces across the day? Cheap panels and a multimeter are enough.
13. Which natural dye (turmeric, onion skin, pomegranate rind) is most colourfast after washing?
14. Does the temperature of water affect how fast sugar dissolves, and by how much?
15. How does the size of a parachute canopy change the fall time of the same weight?
16. Which type of soil (sandy, clay, garden) holds water longest? Measure drainage through a filter.
17. Do mosquitoes prefer dark or light cloth? Count landings on hung cloths at dusk, same location.
18. How does adding weight to a paper aeroplane’s nose change its flight distance?
19. Build a simple electromagnet: how do number of coil turns and battery count change how many pins it lifts?

Secondary (Grades 9–10): Senior Scholars level

20. How does air pollution (measured with a low-cost particulate sensor) vary across a day on your street? Compare with traffic counts.
21. Which low-cost water filter design (sand, charcoal, cloth, combination) reduces turbidity most? Measure with a simple light-and-phone turbidity setup.
22. How does the concentration of a disinfectant affect bacterial growth on agar plates from a kitchen surface?
23. Does the surface colour of a roof model change the indoor temperature? Build identical boxes with white, black and reflective roofs.
24. How does fertiliser run-off concentration affect algae growth in pond-water samples?
25. Which cooking oil breaks down fastest on repeated heating? Measure with pH strips and colour change.

College and university (Intermediate to undergraduate): College Pioneers and University League

26. Design and test a low-cost evaporative cooler and measure its cooling efficiency against humidity.
27. Train a small image-classification model to identify common crop leaf diseases from photographs, and measure its accuracy on new images.
28. Measure the effect of brick-kiln proximity on soil pH and plant growth in your area.
29. Build an Arduino-based soil moisture irrigation controller and quantify water saved against a timer.
30. Survey and model the relationship between classroom CO2 levels and student self-reported attention across a school day.

How to turn an idea into a project

Pick the question, then write down exactly what you will measure and what you will compare. Change one thing at a time. Repeat each measurement at least three times. Record everything in a dated logbook. Then ask: what does the data actually show, and what would I do differently next time? That last answer is usually the most impressive part of the write-up.

Where strong projects can go

SEG National Expo is CEE’s national exhibition for student projects, with six levels from Little Explorers to University League, and the Entrepreneur & Scientific Guild gives students in AI, Coding, Robotics and Natural Sciences a community to build with and a route to submit original work to CEE for review. If you have built something you are proud of, submit it through the Guild’s Submit Your Work page.