A sport can be very popular in one country but almost unheard of in another. Why do you think that is? What is it about sports that make them more known in some places and not in others? First, do some research to find out the most popular sports in different countries. Make sure to look at countries on several different continents.

Next, analyze the list to see what you can find. Why do you think those are the most popular sports? How do things like the country's climate, government, and economy affect which sports are most popular?

Who invented basketball? In which country did hockey originate? What about baseball? Football? Tennis? Every single sport had to start as an idea in someone's head so do some research to answer these questions. Think about who the inventor was, why the sport was invented, how he or she came up with the idea, and where the first game took place. Keep in mind that there are a lot of myths out there so be sure to do enough research that you can separate myth from reality.

Think about the original rules that the inventor came up with. Is the game still played the same way? If not, what changes have there been? Why do you think the sport changed from its original design?

The Olympic games have been around since 776 BC. What were the first Olympic games like? Do research learn more about the ancient Olympics. How did they get their name? Where were they held? Who competed? What sports were included?

Once you have your information about the ancient Olympics, compare them to the modern games, like the ones recently held in Salt Lake City or Sydney. How are they the same? How are they different?

If you think that sports competition is only for the perfectly healthy, think again. The Special Olympics has proven that physically and mentally challenged athletes can succeed in Olympic style competition. Do research to learn about the history of the Special Olympics. When did they start? Who participates? What sports are included? How can you get involved?

How does being involved in the Special Olympics affect the participants? What does the experience mean to them? What do they gain from it? Do research or, if you can, conduct interviews with some Special Olympians to get the answers.

It is not a question of whether a sport is covered in you local newspaper, it is a question of how it is covered. To study sports journalism, collect the sports section of a paper for at least a week and analyze the coverage of one sport. Are there long articles, short articles, or just the scores? What about pictures? How are they used? How many are there? What are they of? Are they black and white or in color? What about the writing, what kind of language is used? Is it positive, negative, or neutral?

What does your analysis tell you about sports journalism? Does it favor some sports or athletes over others? Why do you think that is? Is the reporting biased or fair?

The year 2002 marks the 30th Anniversary of Title IX, a law that changed girls' roles in sports forever. What exactly is Title IX? What does the law say? How does it promote women's athletics? How was it used by colleges to include women in NCAA sports?

Think about how many opportunities there were for girls in sports before Title IX and how many after. How are they the same or different? How does this law affect both young girls and professional athletes? How does it affect the overall popularity of sports such as women's basketball or tennis?

You have probably heard athletes talking about going to sports psychologists. For this paper, learn more about the field of sports psychology and how it works. First, define the term sports psychology - how is it different from ordinary psychology? What is involved? What education does someone need to be a sports psychologist?

Next, do some research into the techniques that sports psychologists use. What are they called? How do they work? How do they help the athletes? Are they effective?

How were sports affected when they started being shown on television shows like the ABC's Wide World of Sports? Then, how were they affected when 24 hour sports channels like ESPN came into existence? Finally, how does the internet affect sports? Think about sites that let people see the scores in real time, even if the game isn't being broadcast until the next day.

You can also use media to learn more about who likes which sports. Watch a football game and keep a list of all of the commercials. What are the products featured? Now watch a figure skating competition and do the same thing. How are the products similar or different? What do they tell you about who watches each sport? Keep doing this experiment with as many sports as you can.

What does it mean to be a good sport? What qualities are important? How does a good sport differ from a bad sport? How do good and bad sports handle both winning and losing? How do good and bad sports obey by the rules of the game?

There have been lots of scandals over the years in several different sports. Almost every scandal can be traced back to someone being a bad sport in some way. Pick a sports scandal and research it. What happened? What was the cause? How did bad sport behavior play a role? How did the scandal affect the person who caused it? Did it make his or her life better or worse? How?

There have been several people in history who have done groundbreaking things in their sports. Research the accomplishments of the people on this list of African American groundbreakers: Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudolph, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Hank Aaron, Mohammed Ali, and Tiger Woods.

What do these people all have in common? What makes them groundbreakers? What are their biggest accomplishments? What is their legacy? How have they inspired other athletes? How have they inspired you?

You are what you eat. How does that saying apply to athletes? What kinds of special diets do athletes use in order to stay in peak shape? What foods do they avoid? What do they need to eat a lot of? Are the diets different for athletes in different sports? Do football players and swimmers need to eat the same diet?

Once you have done some research into what athletes eat, try to figure out why they use those diets. How do they help? Research how protein, fat, carbohydrates, and water affect your body. Which kinds of food give you energy? Which take away energy? Which should be in an athlete's diet and which shouldn't?

Statistics are more than just numbers in your math textbook, they are all over the place in sports. Statistics are used to keep records (such as fastest sprinter in the world or highest scoring basketball player). They are also used to give information on a particular athlete (such as how many wins VS losses for a hockey player or how many aces a tennis player serves in an average match).

Choose an athlete and look at his or her statistics. What are they? What kinds of things do they describe? What do they tell you about that athlete? Now, look at statistics for a few other athletes in the same sport. How do they compare? From the statistics, can you tell who is the better athlete? How?

Over the years, scientists have been extremely important to athletes. Through scientific discoveries and inventions, sports equipment for almost every sport has become high tech and athletic performances have gotten better as a result.

Pick a sport and do some research to find out how science has helped create new and improved equipment. What are the new inventions? How do they work? How are they based on science? How has the new scientific equipment helped athletes achieve better results? Give some examples of how the sport has changed as a result of the new, scientific equipment.

As athletes have to do more and more to stay at the top of their sport, they are at risk of being injured more than ever. What are some of the most common sports injuries? Are the injuries different for athletes in different sports? How hard is it for athletes to recover from these injuries?

Focus on the most important part of sports injuries - how to prevent them. What can athletes do to stay injury-free? How can you protect yourself from being injured while playing sports?

Scientifically speaking, there are two main types of exercise: aerobic and anaerobic. What do these two terms mean? Once the terms are defined, make a list of which sports are aerobic and which are anaerobic.

What are the benefits of each kind of exercise? How do they affect your body? Is one better for you than the other or are they equally beneficial? Why?

Water has its own set of science rules and all water sports, everything from swimming to diving to sailing, have to obey them. What are the laws of physics of water? What are the main concepts? Think about how water can be used to help athletes and how it can also hold them back.

Now, think about how athletes in water sports use these laws to help them in their sport. How do they get them to work in their favor? Also, research the adjustments and inventions they have made in order to get around the problems that water can cause.

Sports are for fun but they are also big business. How do economics affect both athletes and the people who watch sports? What are the average salaries for athletes in different sports? How do they compare? Besides their salary for playing their sport, how else do athletes earn money? How have these salaries changed over the years?

How do economics affect the people watching sports? How much do tickets cost for different sports? How have those prices changed over the years? How do these prices affect people who want to watch a sporting event?

There is science involved in every single sport. The trick is to figure out how to use the science to your advantage so you can be a better athlete. First, pick a few sports and research the science concepts involved. What are they?

Next, research how you can use these scientific principals to become better at the sport. Are there special techniques you can learn to use science on your side? Is there special equipment that will help? If you can, try out what you learned and write about your experience.

A big problem today is the abuse of drugs such as steroids by athletes. What exactly is a steroid? How do they work? Why do athletes take them? What do they think the drugs will do for them? What bad things happen to an athlete's body if he or she takes steroids? What are the side effects? How dangerous are they really?

Research a story about an athlete who took steroids. What happened to his or her body? What happened to his or her career in sports? What were the consequences of taking the steroids?

Computers aren't just for games and email, they are used by almost every sport in one way or another. Pick a sport or two and research how they use computers. What are they used for in different sports? How is the internet used in sports?

Think about how sports are played now, with the help of computers, and before computers were invented. How is it different? How have computers affected sports? Have they made them better or worse? Why?