2024 Nobel Science Projects for K-12 Students

Encourage your students to explore cutting-edge science projects related to the 2024 Nobel Prizes.

Explore Nobel Prize Science with Student Projects

Students inspired by this year's Nobel Prize winners can start their own research on similar topics with independent science projects and STEM activities.

See our suggestions below for related student exploration in areas of chemistry, physics, and medicine.

Chemistry and Computational Protein Design

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was jointly awarded to David Baker "for computational protein design" and Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper "for protein structure prediction." As part of his research, Baker created Foldit, an online video game in which players contribute to protein design research by solving protein folding puzzles that can be used by Baker's Rosetta tools.

Students can explore protein folding and computational analysis with these projects:

• Foldit: Playing a Game While Solving Protein Structures*: Use the interactive Foldit online game to investigate the stability of different tertiary structures for a protein.
• Computational Exploration of Protein Function: Learn how to uncover the functions of an unknown protein using computational methods.

Educators can connect student learning to this year's Nobel Prize-winning research on proteins with these lessons:

• Bio-Engineering: Making and Testing Model Proteins: Explore transcription, translation, and genetic mutation and then design and create protein models to replace defective proteins in a human body.
• What Do Enzymes in Pineapple Juice Do to Milk?: Learn about the role of enzymes in speeding up chemical reactions and making or breaking chemical compounds.

Physics and Machine Learning

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks." These scientists have been instrumental in developing artificial neural network methods that underwrite today's machine learning, including image recognition. Hopfield invented a network that uses a method for saving and recreating patterns by looking at the "atomic spin" of the data. Hinton built on the Hopfield network to develop the Boltzmann machine, a network that can "autonomously find properties in data."

Students can explore the science of image-related artificial intelligence and machine learning with projects like:

• Create a Facial Recognition System with Machine Learning: Explore the use of a Siamese neural network to create a facial recognition system that can reliably distinguish individuals from others.
• Happy or Sad? Use Artificial Intelligence to Classify Faces: Explore how an AI system is trained by experimenting with Teachable Machine to teach a web-based tool to classify images of faces as "happy" or "sad."

For more information, including introductory projects and activities to explore neural networks, see Student AI and Machine Learning Projects.

Educators can explore AI and machine learning in the classroom with the following lessons:

• Happy or Sad? Exploring Bias in Machine Learning: Explore machine learning with Teachable Machine and teach a computer to distinguish between happy and sad faces while investigating how repeatable and systematic bias errors can appear in machine learning.
• Computer Simulation of an Artificial Neural Network: This lesson for high school students covers artificial intelligence, neural networks, and machine learning. Students run simulations of a perceptron neural network and are challenged to identify weaknesses and find ways to improve the system.

Medicine, Human Biology, and Genetic Engineering

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun "for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation." This discovery uncovered more than a thousand microRNAs that help regulate gene expression in the human genome.

Students interested in genetic engineering, medical biotechnology, and human biology can experiment with independent science projects like these:

• Drugs & Genetics: Why Do Some People Respond to Drugs Differently than Others?: Use an online pharmacogenomics database to investigate a specific drug to explore biological signaling pathways and why some gene mutations cause people to respond differently to a drug.
• From Genes to Genetic Diseases: What Kinds of Mutations Matter?: Investigate the genetic mutations that cause a disease like cystic fibrosis and why some mutations don't result in disease.
• How Direct Reprogramming Can Transform One Type of Cell Straight into Another: Use online bioinformatics databases to explore how researchers select transcription factors to directly reprogram one cell type into another target cell type.

Educators can use the following lessons to explore genetics, genomics, and genetic engineering:

• CUT! How Does CRISPR Work?
• How Gene Mutations Change Your Ability to Taste

Make STEM Career Connections

The awarding of the Nobel Prizes presents a great opportunity for educators to talk with students about this year's award winners and related STEM careers. For more information and inspiration about doing STEM career projects with students, see:

• Explore STEM Careers with a Remote Learning Project
• STEM Career Bingo!
• Teacher Uses Hashtag Bellwork System to Introduce STEM Careers
• Sparking Interest in STEM Careers in Middle School