{"id":528,"date":"2024-09-23T20:25:47","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T00:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/region.youthscience.ca\/lakeland\/?page_id=528"},"modified":"2025-02-12T11:04:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T16:04:42","slug":"project-types","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/region.youthscience.ca\/lakeland\/resources\/project-types\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing your project type"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discovery Projects: The Quest for Knowledge<\/strong><\/h1>\n

What is it?<\/h4>\n

These projects are all about answering a scientific question. You might start with a hypothesis and then design experiments to test it. Essentially, you’re contributing to the broader scope of human knowledge. This could be anything from “How does the concentration of a reactant affect the rate of a chemical reaction?” to “What is the impact of sleep on academic performance?”<\/p>\n

Methodology<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • Research<\/strong>: Heavy literature review to understand the existing knowledge in the area.<\/li>\n
  • Hypothesis<\/strong>: Formulate a question or assumption you want to test.<\/li>\n
  • Experiment<\/strong>: Design and conduct experiments that allow you to test your hypothesis.<\/li>\n
  • Data Collection<\/strong>: Collect data through your experiments.<\/li>\n
  • Analysis<\/strong>: Statistical analysis of the data to prove or disprove your hypothesis.<\/li>\n
  • Conclusion<\/strong>: Summarize the findings and suggest future research paths.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Who should choose this?<\/h4>\n
      \n
    • If you’re curious about how the world works.<\/li>\n
    • If you enjoy performing experiments.<\/li>\n
    • If you’re considering a career in scientific research.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Examples<\/h4>\n
        \n
      • Studying the effects of different soil types on plant growth.<\/li>\n
      • Researching how different diets affect the lifespan of a particular animal species.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Innovation Projects: The Solution Creators<\/strong><\/h1>\n

        What is it?<\/h4>\n
          \n
        • Innovation projects are geared towards solving a specific problem or improving an existing solution. Say you’ve noticed that people waste a lot of water while washing dishes. Your project could be designing a water-efficient dishwasher. Or maybe you’ve realized that phone batteries die too quickly, and you want to innovate a new kind of battery technology.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Methodology<\/h4>\n
            \n
          • Problem Identification<\/strong>: What problem are you trying to solve?<\/li>\n
          • Research<\/strong>: Study existing solutions to identify their weaknesses or gaps.<\/li>\n
          • Ideation<\/strong>: Come up with multiple design ideas to solve the problem.<\/li>\n
          • Prototype<\/strong>: Build a preliminary version of your solution.<\/li>\n
          • Testing<\/strong>: Conduct tests to validate the effectiveness of your design.<\/li>\n
          • Refinement<\/strong>: Make adjustments based on test results.<\/li>\n
          • Implementation<\/strong>: Apply your solution to real-world scenarios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            Who should choose this?<\/h4>\n
              \n
            • If you love solving problems.<\/li>\n
            • If you enjoy building and creating things.<\/li>\n
            • If you’re considering a career in engineering or product design.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              Examples<\/h4>\n
                \n
              • Creating a phone app that helps people find parking spots in a crowded city.<\/li>\n
              • Designing a more efficient system for recycling plastics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                Key Differences<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
                Factor<\/strong><\/td>\nDiscovery<\/strong><\/td>\nInnovation<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
                Primary Goal<\/strong><\/td>\nAnswer a scientific question<\/td>\nSolve a problem<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
                Methodology<\/strong><\/td>\nExperiment-centric<\/td>\nDesign-centric<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
                Outcome<\/strong><\/td>\nKnowledge, academic papers<\/td>\nProducts, prototypes, patents<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
                Career Relevance<\/strong><\/td>\nResearch roles, academia<\/td>\nEngineering, design, entrepreneurship<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

                 <\/p>\n

                So, there you have it! If you’re the type of person who loves asking “why?” and digging deep into understanding the mysteries of the universe, go for a Discovery project. If you’re more into the “how can we make this better?” approach and love tinkering and building stuff, Innovation is your game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                Discovery Projects: The Quest for Knowledge What is it? These projects are all about answering a scientific question. You might start with a hypothesis and then design experiments to test it. Essentially, you’re contributing to the broader scope of human knowledge. This could be anything from “How does the concentration of a reactant affect the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":378,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-528","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/region.youthscience.ca\/lakeland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/region.youthscience.ca\/lakeland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/region.youthscience.ca\/lakeland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/region.youthscience.ca\/lakeland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/region.youthscience.ca\/lakeland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/region.youthscience.ca\/lakeland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":619,"href":"https:\/\/region.youthscience.ca\/lakeland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/528\/revisions\/619"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/region.youthscience.ca\/lakeland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/region.youthscience.ca\/lakeland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}