If you are looking for ideas for student projects, and having a wide variety of topics and options students can choose from, consider getting those ideas from the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. In 2015, the UN published a list of 17 big issues and problems that affect every human being on the planet to some degree. Every country on earth signed on to commit to solving problems within these 17 goals, with a timetable of 2030.
Students can choose from those 17 goals and try to think of local problems that fall within one or more of the goals, and then try to come up with their own solutions for the problem. Or a teacher can select one of the goals and have a class try to come up with a local problem and solution. These can be fun and rewarding, and unleash some creativity, research, and problem solving skills that may be able to actually help with a real-world problem, and in the process possibly help others who are affected by the problem. These types of projects often need science, math, and/or engineering to help generate solutions, so look for those aspects of problems you consider. If you have access to the Internet, perhaps consider using an AI such as ChatGPT to get ideas and develop them with an AI, which can be both helpful as well as provide some experience for students in the use of AI - a skill set that, whether we like it or not, today's students must have and be exposed to.
Here is a spreadsheet of project ideas and topics my students have chosen over the last few years. We have had nearly 200 projects, by nearly 400 students, in nearly all 17 goal areas, from local to global scales. Many students have had their eyes opened by the range and scope of the problems that occur locally as well as in other parts of the US or world, that they never had thought about. Numerous students have gone to college and have looked for other ways to make a small difference by working on local issues...sometimes exposure to real problems, that affect real people, can change some students' lives to use those big, beautiful brains and hearts to do some good in the world at a really young age!
