<p>I'm planning to do this science fair.
But I'm still at the process of formulating an idea of what to do and finding a mentor.
I can probably find a mentor, but before I go scouting for one, I think it'd be best if I had some idea of what to do first; that way, when I talk to him I know what I wanna do, instead of just waste his time.
The thing is, although I know I want to do something along the lines of microbiology, I can't seem to formulate an experiment.
Any help would be appreciated.</p>
<p>If you haven’t already, you should sit down somewhere for an hour without distractions and brainstorm. Look through journals or websites and just read about your topic. See if there’s anything that jumps out at you.</p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>Have you done a lot of reading on microbiology/taken advanced bio classes or learned equivalent material? If you know enough about a subject, eventually you will have a question to do a project on. Cheerioswithmilk gave good advice; you can also just email a professor, tell him/her that you’re interested in working in their lab, and then use your work there to help you come up with a project.</p>
<p>Here’s the thing: the mentor is not supposed to work for you, it is the other way around. It is one thing to say “Hi, <em>__, I am interested in working on solar cells”, so that he/she has an idea of what you are interested in. However, saying “Hi, </em>, I want to work on a project in which I analyze the n junction of a conventional solar cell and a Cesium based one to test efficiency”, not only will come out as snobby, but now that person will have to drop all of their work to work with yours. Scientists are busy, my mentor is busy, after a while, I ended up doing a lot by myself. I worked with a larger group and, with the help of my mentor, we were able to find an interesting topic that was beneficial to the whole group’s work. My recommendation: devise a nice letter, talk about your interests, talk about how you could be an asset to them, and good luck.</p>
<p>BTW, finding a mentor without pre-existing connections is a really laborious process. Many never return emails, and those who do are often too immersed in their own work. You could apply to some research programs, but they are EXTREMELY competitive, (the one I partook in took fewer than 35-40 kids), and we had kids from all over the country.</p>
<p>^^^With regards to the last paragraph, I emailed almost the entire EE department of my local university before we found a mentor. And even then the help he could give was limited because we couldn’t work in his lab and since it was mostly an engineering project.</p>