In a blink, the hustle and bustle of December holidays has passed, and the close of the year and the start of the new year is upon us. Do you have "goals" for the New Year? Are you hoping to do more of "this" or more of "that"? The first of January is notoriously a day of making resolutions to help guide the year as it begins to unfold. While resolutions run the gamut from serious to playful, getting in shape is a resolution many share.

A casual poll of friends and family members may turn up a surprising number of wanna-be exercisers as the ball drops later this week in Times Square. If you tried out one of our cookie dough projects, or if there was one too many slices of pie in your December, you, too, may be considering vowing to eat better, to exercise more, or to make the next year one focused on healthy choices and healthy living.

Whether exercise makes your own list of resolutions or not, with friends and family around you plugging in their treadmills and loading up their mp3 players for the morning jog, you may find yourself in prime position to tackle one of these health-conscious Science Buddies Project Ideas and to unravel things anaerobic, aerobic, and even neurotrophic.

• The Brain-Body Connection: Can Exercise Really Make Our Brains Work Better? (Science Buddies' difficulty level: 3)
• Sweating the Score: Can Video Games Be a Form of Exercise? (Science Buddies' difficulty level: 4)
• Heart Health: How Does Heart Rate Change with Exercise? (Science Buddies' difficulty level: 5)
• Effects of Exercise: Changes in Carbon Dioxide Output (Science Buddies' difficulty level: 7-9)

For more health-oriented projects, browse our Human Biology and Health Project Ideas.