Wow, thank you for all of your suggestions! It was very helpful to see all of your different points of view. I did a little preliminary research on a few of these topics, and I decided to go with stem cell research because it's fairly new to most people (i.e., people not in the scientific/medical research field) and because there's a lot of controversy and information available about it. For my project, I'm going to write a letter to a senator/congressman advocating the use of federal funding for stem cell research (our audience is supposed to be imaginary, so it won't be sent...although if it turns out well, maybe I will send it!) and I'm going to put together a pamphlet for uninformed audiences outlining the basics of stem cell research and the possible benefits of it. I just hope that my professor accepts my proposal!
Although I really liked the asthma idea (my brother and I both have asthma), I did a Google search and found that my potential project was pretty much already done within the first two or three links.
Thanks again for all of your help! I knew I could count on GCers to come up with great ideas!
