Category #1: Personal and Family Activities
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1.1: Planning a Family Vacation. and Dinos in The ‘Hood
Treasure Hunting Vacation Trips.
1.2: Living within Your Budget. .
1.3: Living the Lifestyle of Your Dreams: What Does it
Take?
1.4: Designing a Home Emergency Kit
1.5: Dealing with Medical Emergencies
1.6: Making Your House Secure
1.7: Care and Feeding of Family Pets
1.8: Tracing Your Heritage
1.9: Gardening for Fun, Health, and Survival.
1.10: Computerizing Your House
1.11: Planning/Saving for College
Advanced Projects:
1.12: Solar and Wind Energy for Your Home
Project: Building a Tesla Electricity Generator
1.13: Building a Robot (Beginner to Advanced
Category #2: Safety and Survival
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2.0: Survival 101: Introduction.
2.1: Preparing for Earthquakes, Tornados, Flooding, Hurricanes, and Manmade Disasters.
Creating a Survival Kit.
2.1: Surviving with Family for One Month.
2.2: Planning Escape Routes from Danger.
2.3: Preparing for Flooding, including Tsunamis.
2.4: Alternative Foods and Edible Wild Plants.
2.6: Purifying and Storing Water.
2.8: Gardening for Survival.
2.9: Dealing with Medical Emergencies in the Home.
2.10: Internet Safety.
2.11: Carbon Monoxide and Radon Hazards.
Category #3: The Environment
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3.1: Species Survival.
3.2: Preventing/Cleaning up Oil Spills.
3.3: Destructive Insects.
3.4: Clean Air.
3.5: Rain Forest Protection. (In Edit 292).
3.6: Recycling, Reusing, and Repurposing.
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3.7: Environmentally Destructive Feral Animals
3.8: Edible Landscapes and Survival.
3.9: The Earth’s Best Caretakers.
3.10: Global Warming: Manmade: Yes or No?
3.11: Tracking Weather Changes.
Category #4: Business and Investment (Elementary School Edition)
Category #5: Politics and Political Science
Category #6: Energy and Transportation
Category #7: Health and Medicine
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7.1: Smoking.
7.2: Cancer Detection and Prevention.
7.3: Heart Disease Prevention.
7.4: Combating Obesity.
7.5: Alzheimer’s Disease AND 7.6: Better Technology for
Nursing Homes
7.7: Malaria Prevention
7.8: Lyme Disease
7.9: Heavy Metal Poisoning
7.10: Dehydration.
Category #8: Architecture and Engineering: Roots from the Past.
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8.1: Turning Deserts into Tropics.
8.2: Fixing Our Broken Infrastructure.
8.3: Building Ancient Egypt, Central and South America: Engineering Marvels.
8.4: Emerging Technology
8.5: Future (Emerging) Technology
Category #9: Technology and History.
 9.1: Connections: A History of Technology from its Roots to Present and Future Uses.
 9.2: The History of Computing
 9.3: Native Americans Who Populated My State
 9.4: Ethnic Settlers in My State
 9.5: My Life in History
 9.6: Leonardo’s Technology
Category #10: Technology and Government
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10.1: Technology and Education
10.2: Technology and Law Enforcement
10.3: Technology and The Military
10.4: NASA and Technology.
Also, consider:
10.5: The US Corps of Engineers.
10.6: Garbage Collection (Recycling/Reusing/Repurposing
for a Living)
Category # 11: Cinema and Technology (In Edit- Middle and High School ONLY).
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11.0: Introduction
11.01: Objectives
11.1: Star Wars Technology
11.2: Star Trek Technology
11.3: James Bond and Technology
11.4: Mission Impossible Technology.
11.5: Burn Notice, MythBusters, and MacGyver
11.6: Indiana Jones and the Consummate STEM Career
Category # 12: Dirty Jobs and Technology
Category # 13: Science, Fiction, Fact, and Technology
Project Ideas
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Build a small battery-powered electric motor.
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Add a solar supplement to charge the battery.
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Add a wind turbine to charge the battery.
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Convert the motor to power received directly from solar or wind-generated energy.
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Build a Mag-Lev model train.
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Build a model of a “balloon-suspended” monorail mass transit vehicle.
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Create three methods for purifying drinking water.
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Build a working model telegraph device and invent a new code to transmit on it.
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Create an above-ground hydroponic garden for use in a rain forest or desert setting using PVC
and/or recycled materials.
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Build a robot that performs one or more of the following tasks or others of your choosing:
Remote control camera; soil-gathering scoop; temperature measurement.
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Build a wave-generating machine and strobe for visualization and measurement.
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Build a robotic arm that simulates a human arm.
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Build a small scale model of one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions using simulated wood beams
and then redesign it using modern materials.
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Create a “travel package” for a vacation for a family of four that provides users with all pertinent
data, including maps, hotels, campsites, or RV parks and prices, food sources and estimated
costs, distance between overnight stops, and mpg charts, locations of hospitals and other
emergency facilities. Make your destination one of the geographical areas of the US you studied
in school. Or, choose a location known for the discovery of dinosaur fossils or for finding gold,
diamonds, antiques, or other interesting objects.
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Design and build a garden on your property that will provide each family member with the
proper nutrients for a full year, all seasons.
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Ascertain the medical needs for each member of your immediate family and design a healthy
menu for each for one month.
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Plan a treasure-hunting family outing complete with all travel data.
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Design plans for computerizing your house and adding solar or wind power.
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Design a survival kit for your family for each of the following emergencies: Destructive weather
(flooding, tornados, and earthquakes), loss of income, terrorist threats, and food and energy
shortages.
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Design a medical emergency kit for your immediate family that includes aids and medications
for as many disasters or medical emergencies as possible.
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Conduct studies of all edible wild plants within 100 miles of your home. Create a report and
include descriptions and photos of each as well as the same for dangerous, toxic plants. Publish
a newsletter or distribute flyers to friends.
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Study and report on the advantages of recycling, repurposing, or reusing and then initiate a
project for your community. Design and initiate a new business for your community that
includes recycling, repurposing, or reusing materials currently being trashed.
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Study and report on dangerous conditions within 100 miles of your community relating to
government reports alluding to crumbling of our infrastructure and start a community campaign
to alert citizens of potential dangers. Begin plans for reconstruction. Use engineering and design
skills to create plans. Present the plans to community leaders.
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If you live in a coastal community, research and report on the possible destruction caused by a
one foot and a two foot rise in water. Design plans to raise structures and roadways as well as
emergency escape routes and publish them for each resident in your local newspaper.
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Study and report on any and all animals and plants within 100 miles of your community that are
in danger of extinction. Design plans for a sanctuary where each of these animals and plants can
find safety and be assured of continued survival. Write articles for your local newspaper telling
residents of the dangers as well as the value of keeping these from going extinct.
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Study and report on the condition of local waterways. Work with local officials to monitor for
water purity and probe and test for contaminants.
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Conduct research and report on weather patterns for your community going back as far as 100
years. Compare averages and use graphs to determine climate changes.
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Collect data on oil spills for your community, including those from dripping oil pans beneath cars
and trucks. Design and/or create ways to catch the oil before it hits the streets.
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Research and report on the damage done each year in the US by destructive insects as well as
rodents and feral hogs. Design new ways to eradicate them without harming beneficial species.
Consider the use of eco-friendly chemicals like chrysanthemum oil and eugenol in place of
dangerous chemicals. Create your own extermination company on paper and write ads
describing your safe methods.
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Visit your local grocery store and make a list of all household cleaning agents. Use a spreadsheet
to create a side-by-side comparison of ingredients considered environmentally dangerous and
label products accordingly. Then, publish a list for your community.
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Explore the sources of greenhouse gasses and design new ways to: 1) lower emissions; and, 2)
scrub the air to remove them. Create a way to control the # 1 source of methane (cattle) and
design a new business around it. Your product must help ranchers and be both practical and
economical.
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Research and report on the importance of rain forests in various areas of the planet and find
ways to stop their destruction without hurting the economies of the countries where they are
found.
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Consider that less than 50% of useful materials are recycled, especially by older Americans, and
design and carry out a campaign to get more people to participate.
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Find at least one use for a material that is not typically recycled, reused, or repurposed by most
people. An example is wood pallets that could be used to build floors and walls for small
buildings or even houses.
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Study the effect of alien species of plants and animals in Florida and or your state and develop a
plan to stop their spread and remove existing specimens. Design specialized traps that target
the animal but do not injure or kill it. For example, a snake trap based on their inability to move
backwards.
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Start a local chapter of advocates for the protection of whales, sharks, bears, dolphins, and
other animals that are needlessly killed or used for medicinal purposes with no merit.
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Study the ways indigenous peoples like the Native Americans and peoples living in the Amazon
region of South America have lived off the land without destroying it and then develop an
environmental revitalization plan that can be followed by state and federal departments.
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Study your own personal domain and discover each way you may be contributing to its
destruction. Then, make necessary changes.
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Research the stock and commodities markets. Then, choose a stock or commodity and use
$10,000 of play money to purchase a technology stock or commodity at today’s prices. Follow
your choice for 90 days and then sell your shares. Use a spreadsheet to log your progress and
determine your earnings or losses. Do the same for metals like gold and silver.
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Carry a pen and paper with you for a week and take notes on one or more problems you
encounter or things you hate to do. Then, use critical thinking to create a solution for the
problem or a better, more enjoyable way to do the thing you dislike doing. Design your new
“invention” and refine it as a new product or service that can be marketed to others.