• Students can conduct sociology science projects with these ideas.top of the chart image by Steve Johnson from Fotolia.com
  
  Sociology studies the social behavior of people, and involves the development of societies and communities. This subject allows students to investigate these human behaviors using inquiry-based learning by creating questions to research. The following projects give students the opportunity to discuss important social issues, and how they impact their environment.
  
  

Mirror, mirror on the wall: Who's the fairest teacher of them all?

• This project allows students to investigate favored teachers in a school. Students create their own surveys that could answer questions such as, "Do younger students like their teachers more than older students?" And, "Do boys like their teachers more than girls?" (See References 1). The teacher and students can identify grade levels, how many students to survey, and the question format before conducting the surveys. Students will be able to graph and chart trends in their data collection, and can create a poster displaying their results. This type of project is appropriate for upper elementary grades.
  
  

Boys vs. Girls: Where do we go?

• A project focusing on gender differences is a great way to develop stereotype and prejudice awareness among children. It involves researching how many girls and boys can be found in different locations at one time. The students can brainstorm some different locations or situations that they might be curious about and that might generate gender differences. Some locations include movie theaters, grocery stores, arcades, and toy stores. Students can pose questions regarding the locations such as "Do more boys go to arcades than girls?" and "Do girls like toy stores more than boys?" Results can be recorded in the charts, showing the number of boys and girls in each location, allowing the students to draw some conclusions from their observations. This project would be geared towards grade 4-6, and can be included in a sociology unit focusing on gender stereotypes.
  
  

What do you do in your free time?

• This type of project focuses on what students do after they finish school for the day. It looks at the interests of students at different ages and genders. This project can also incorporate cultural awareness by studying what children from different ethnic backgrounds do after school. Teachers can incorporate this project into a social studies unit that focuses on health, culture or technology. The students can brainstorm different types of activities for a survey that allows them to graph their research about the most common activities. Some after-school activities that children might identify are sports, video games, Facebook and homework. The teacher can have students create graphs and charts to show their results.