For the science project, I am going to see which shape of the squirrel cage works the best, and I need to know what supplies I will need, and how to build a somewhat real one because the ones on the internet are made of plastic cups and paperclips

 

The squirrel cage is a fairly complex structure to construct. Here is a link to a simplified model in Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel-cage_rotor. Most if not all paper clip motors are DC, not AC induction types.