Health topics can include healthy living and patient care. Research about healthy living can include the effects of exercising and eating organic foods and its relationship to heart disease, obesity as well as cholesterol and diabetes. Research can also include the effects of smoking, obesity and drug use as they relate to cancer and heart and lung disease. Topics about patient care can include researching the ethics of stem cell research, physician-assisted suicide and birth selection. Students can also research foods or activities that decrease the risk of Alzheimer's, dementia or other mental illness.
Research topics about the environment can include recycling, environmental disasters and energy sources. Topics about recycling can analyze trends and costs associated with recycling programs; students may also choose to localize recycling programs to find out the impact in their community. Research about environmental disasters can include the biggest and most costly disasters; research can focus on what government and the private sector do to prevent such a disaster (either natural or man-made) in the future. Students can research energy sources such as wind, solar and hydroelectric and analyze their benefits and demerits.
Research topics on social issues can include the war on drugs, homelessness and capital punishment. Students can examine the amount of money spent on fighting the war on drugs including police officers, drug counselors and school programs; students should also analyze results using government data and statistics. Topics about homelessness can examine the actual number of homeless people in the United States, programs to help them and nonprofit organizations that help. Capital punishment research can include the number of people put to death as well as the overall costs and legal fees as they relate to specific cases.
Topics for research in the mass media can center on advertising, journalism and the Internet. Research can include the effectiveness of the types of advertising, such as testimonials and humor. Journalism research can include different forms of journalism over time, the most effective way to reach an audience with a news story and ethical issues such as plagiarism or conflict of interest. Research topics about the Internet can focus on the overall development and accessibility in homes, schools, businesses and other places in both the United States and around the world; research can also include ethical issues such as music/file sharing and software piracy.