How to start a project – recommended processes and workflows
- Initiate and Plan –
- Start with what you are passionate about and what you’re good at
- This is the step where anything is possible. Dream big. Follow your passions. Ask questions. What do you want to explore?
Think about:
- What are you passionate about?
- What are you good at?
- What question are you trying to answer, or what problem are you trying to solve?
- Who could benefit from your idea?
- How can it make the world a better place?
- What kinds of research do you need to do to answer some of your questions?
- How will you identify relevant and trustworthy sources of information?
- Who could support me in this project as a mentor?
- Check out the MSTF Project Ideas for inspiration
- Does your idea require Ethical Approval? If required, get the approval before starting the project.
- Perform and Record
- Think about:
- Is your idea safe?
- Are you planning to record information in a digital or hand-written logbook?
- How will you control the variables?
- What materials will you use?
- Is your testing plan supported by your background research?
- What is your experiment or design process?
- How will you design and test your solution or prototype?
- How will you collect your data?
- How many samples will you need to test?
- Try out your idea and see what happens
- Get messy and dive into your project! This is where you test your question, to discover and learn. Be prepared to refine your plans.
- Think about:
- Analyse and Interpret
- It’s time to look at your results! What happened and why?
- Think about:
- What are the most important results or findings of your project?
- How does your prototype work? What are its weak points?
- What is the best way for you to display your results? Graphs? Charts? Diagrams? A demonstration?
- How will you use your results to support your conclusion – what happened and why?
- How would you explain your results to someone without a technical background?
- If you got results that were different to those expected, that’s okay! Explain why.
- Do you have enough data? Should you repeat your testing to get more?
- Communicate – Exhibit and Explain
- Share your project story – sharing what you learned and where you’ll go next!
- Learn how to start with a Single Slide digital presentation board, which is then printed to prepare a physical board for the fair. The digital board will be used by the judges ONLY in the absence of a physical fair.
- Think about:
- How can you get people’s attention with your story? How will you draw people in?
- What inspired you to do this project?
- What were your key findings?
- What did you learn from your experience?
- Did you experience any issues? How did you overcome them?
- How could you improve your project?
- What are your next steps?
Authors: Martica Alico and Nick Robinson
Updated: 20/10/2026
