A good research question names one specific thing to study, says how you will measure it, can be answered by a high school student with the time, data and tools available, and asks something that has not already been answered in a quick search. Below are 40 examples across eight subjects, each shown next to the weak version a student usually writes first, so you can see exactly what changes.
The criteria come from university writing centers and research-methods guides, all linked in Sources.
What a research question is
A research question is the one question your whole project exists to answer. The data, the measurements, the hypothesis and the conclusion all follow from it.
"Climate change" is a topic. "How has the first frost date in Minnesota shifted since 1950?" is a research question. A topic tells you where to look; a question tells you what to find.
It is also different from a hypothesis. The question asks; the hypothesis is your testable guess at the answer. If you need help with that step, see our science fair hypothesis examples.
The four-part test for a researchable question
University guides use different words for the same ideas. George Mason University's Writing Center asks that a question be clear, focused, concise, complex and arguable. Utah State University's guide asks for focused, feasible and complex. Medical researchers use the FINER checklist: feasible, interesting, novel, ethical and relevant. For a student, they reduce to four checks.
| Check | Plain question to ask | Fails when |
|---|---|---|
| Specific | Does it name one population, place, time period or variable? | It could fill a whole book |
| Measurable | Is there a number, a dataset or a clear observation that answers it? | The answer is an opinion or a vague feeling |
| Feasible | Can a student answer it in 10 to 16 weeks with tools they can access? | It needs a hospital, a particle accelerator or 10,000 participants |
| Original | Would a quick search fail to answer it? | The first search result already has the answer |
Two quick tests catch most weak questions:
- The search test. SUNY Potsdam's library guide puts it simply: if a quick search can answer your question, it probably is not a good research question.
- The yes or no test. Utah State's guide warns that a question answered with yes, no or a single number is not complex enough. Rewrite "Does X affect Y?" as "How much does X change Y, and under what conditions?"
How to turn a weak question into a strong one
Most strong questions start weak. The fix is usually four moves:
Health researchers call this PICOT: population, intervention, comparison, outcome and time frame. Writing each part down shows which one is missing. The variables in step 2 and step 3 are your independent and dependent variables; our guide to independent and dependent variable examples walks through how to identify them.
Biology research question examples
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| How do plants grow? | How does red versus blue LED light change the stem length of radish seedlings over 14 days? |
| Is pollution bad for animals? | How does microplastic concentration in tank water affect the feeding rate of Daphnia magna? |
| What do bacteria do? | Which household surface in a school cafeteria shows the highest bacterial colony count after a standard cleaning routine? |
| Do bees like flowers? | How does flower color affect visit frequency by bees in a suburban garden over one summer? |
| What helps seeds grow? | How does soil salinity from 0 to 2% affect germination rate in mung beans? |
The weak versions are topics with a question mark. The strong versions name an organism, a variable and something you can count. More ideas: biology research for high school students.
Medicine and health research question examples
Experiments on people require approval and supervision, so the strongest student questions in medicine use public data, published studies or computer models instead of patients.
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| How can we cure cancer? | How accurately can a machine learning model trained on a public histopathology image dataset separate benign from malignant breast tissue? |
| Is sugar unhealthy? | How does self-reported sugary drink intake relate to BMI among U.S. adolescents in national health survey data? |
| Why do people get Alzheimer's? | Which speech features in a public audio dataset best separate early Alzheimer's patients from healthy controls? |
| Does exercise help mental health? | Among U.S. high school students in national survey data, how does the number of active days per week relate to reported feelings of sadness? |
| Are hospitals getting better? | How did average emergency department wait times change in one state's public hospital data before and after a staffing policy change? |
Computer science and AI research question examples
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| Can AI think? | How does accuracy of a small language model on grade-school math problems change when prompts include worked examples? |
| How can AI help the environment? | How much more accurately does a convolutional neural network identify plastic waste in drone images of beaches than a color-threshold method? |
| Is social media addictive? | Which features of short-video app sessions best predict session length in a public interaction dataset? |
| How do hackers attack websites? | How well do three open-source phishing URL classifiers perform on phishing links collected in the last six months? |
| Is AI biased? | How do error rates of a public face-detection model differ across skin tone groups in a labeled benchmark dataset? |
Data, models and computing power are often free here, which makes this one of the most feasible fields for students. See our machine learning project ideas.
Physics and engineering research question examples
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| How does gravity work? | How does pendulum length affect period, and at what swing angle does the simple formula stop matching measurements? |
| Can we make better solar panels? | How does surface temperature from 15 to 45 degrees Celsius affect the power output of a small photovoltaic panel? |
| What makes bridges strong? | Which truss design, Warren or Pratt, holds the most load per gram in balsa wood models of equal span? |
| How does sound travel? | How does foam thickness affect the decibel reduction of a 1 kHz tone through a test panel? |
| Are electric cars better? | How does outside air temperature relate to range loss in public electric vehicle trip data? |
Environmental science research question examples
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| What is the effect of global warming on the environment? | How has the date of the first fall frost shifted in Minnesota weather station records since 1950? |
| Is our water clean? | How do nitrate levels in a local creek change in the two weeks after heavy rain compared with dry weeks? |
| How do trees help cities? | How much lower are summer surface temperatures in neighborhoods with over 30% tree cover, using satellite data for one city? |
| Is recycling worth it? | What share of items placed in recycling bins at one school are contaminated, and which item types are most often misplaced? |
| How do wildfires affect air? | How did PM2.5 readings in a city change during wildfire smoke days compared with the same weeks the year before? |
The first weak question in this table is the classic example George Mason's Writing Center uses for a question too broad to answer in a single paper.
Psychology research question examples
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| Does social media affect teens? | How does time spent on short-video apps before bed relate to self-reported sleep onset time among students at one high school? |
| Why do people forget things? | How does background music with lyrics versus without lyrics affect recall on a 20-word memory test? |
| Is stress bad? | How do self-reported stress scores change across a semester for students taking three or more AP classes? |
| Do colors affect mood? | How does room lighting color affect reaction time on a standard online attention task? |
| Why do people procrastinate? | How does breaking an assignment into three dated checkpoints change submission timing compared with one final deadline? |
Studies with human participants usually need a review board's approval before data collection, and science fairs have their own forms; our guide to ISEF forms and teacher sponsors explains what to file. For project ideas, see psychology research for high school students.
Economics research question examples
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| Why are things expensive? | How did grocery prices for 10 staple items change in one city compared with the national inflation rate over the past three years? |
| Is minimum wage good? | How did teen employment in counties on either side of a state border change after one state raised its minimum wage? |
| How does the stock market work? | How do share prices of airline companies move in the five trading days after an oil price spike? |
| Is college worth it? | How do median earnings five years after graduation differ between public and private colleges in federal college outcomes data? |
| Why are houses expensive? | How do zoning limits on lot size relate to median home prices across towns in one metro area? |
History and social science research question examples
History questions are rarely measured with a lab instrument, but they still need a specific source base and a defined period.
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| What caused World War I? | How did coverage of the 1914 July Crisis differ between two major British and German newspapers in the four weeks before war was declared? |
| Was the civil rights movement successful? | How did Black voter registration change in Mississippi counties in the five years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965? |
| How did the internet change society? | How has the vocabulary used in U.S. presidential State of the Union addresses changed since 1990, measured by text analysis? |
| Why do people vote? | How does distance to the nearest polling place relate to turnout across precincts in one county? |
| Is social media bad for democracy? | What share of a sample of political posts during one election week contained claims later rated false by fact-checkers? |
Strong history questions name the sources. A student who can list the specific newspapers, letters or census records they will read has a project.
Common mistakes that make a question weak
- Too broad. If the honest answer is a textbook chapter, narrow by place, time or population.
- Already answered. "What is photosynthesis?" is a definition, not research.
- Not measurable. "Is art important?" has no data that settles it.
- Not feasible. "Does this drug cure diabetes?" needs a clinical trial. Reframe with public data or a model.
- Two questions in one. "How does sleep affect grades and mood and sports?" is three projects. Pick one.
How long a good question takes to write
Expect the question to change three or four times: pick a field, read 5 to 10 recent papers, notice a gap, draft a question, then run the four checks. Our guides on how to choose a research topic and how to read a scientific paper cover the reading step.
Students get stuck here most often, because judging originality and feasibility takes someone who knows the field. That is the first thing a PhD mentor does in the YRI Fellowship: help the student narrow an interest into one question that can become a first-author paper in 10 weeks, then carry it through to submission at peer-reviewed IEEE, Springer or Elsevier venues. 87% of Fellows publish.
Download the YRI Fellowship brochure
The program, the outcomes, the mentors and the tuition, in one PDF you can read with your family.
Related guides
- Science fair hypothesis examples
- Independent and dependent variable examples
- How to choose a research topic
- How to start a research project in high school
- ISEF project ideas by category
- How to write a literature review
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good research question for a high school student?
One that names a specific population or system, a variable you can measure, and an outcome, and that a student can answer in a few months with available tools. For example: "How does soil salinity from 0 to 2% affect germination rate in mung beans?"
How do you write a research question step by step?
Pick a field, read recent papers to see what is known, find a gap, then draft a "how" or "why" question that names the population, variable, outcome and boundary. Test it: if a quick search answers it, or the answer is just yes or no, revise it.
What is the difference between a research question and a hypothesis?
The research question asks what you want to find out. The hypothesis is your testable prediction of the answer, written before you collect data.
How specific should a research question be?
Specific enough that you know exactly what data to collect on day one. George Mason University's Writing Center advises that when in doubt, a question should be as narrow and focused as possible.
Can a research question be a yes or no question?
It should not be. A yes or no question usually hides a better one. Rewrite "Does caffeine affect memory?" as "How does a 100 mg caffeine dose change scores on a 20-word recall test?"
What subjects are easiest for a first research question?
Fields with free public data and software, such as computer science, environmental science using public datasets, and economics, are the most feasible for a first project. Lab biology and human-participant psychology can work too but need more equipment or approvals.
Can someone help my child write a research question?
Yes. A mentor who works in the field can tell quickly whether a question is original and feasible. In the YRI Fellowship, a PhD mentor works 1:1 with the student for 10 weeks from the first question to a first-author paper, with ISEF and JSHS preparation included. Applying takes 10 minutes and there is no fee.
Sources
- George Mason University Writing Center: How to Write a Research Question (criteria and weak vs strong examples)
- Utah State University Libraries: Developing a Research Question (focused, feasible, complex)
- SUNY Potsdam Library: Research Question guide (the quick search test)
- University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine: Asking Research Questions (PICOT and FINER criteria)
- Society for Science: ISEF International Rules (human participant protections and required forms)