Guides · ISEF category
Earth and Environmental Sciences
ISEF category EAEV · difficulty for high-school students: medium
Geology, meteorology, oceanography, climate science, hydrology, soil science, and geochemistry. Includes field sampling, remote sensing analysis, and climate model analysis.
How it's judged
ISEF scores 100 points across five criteria:
- Creative Ability: 30 pts
- Scientific Thought: 30 pts
- Thoroughness: 15 pts
- Skill: 15 pts
- Clarity: 10 pts
What wins
- Remote sensing analysis of land use change or glacier retreat using satellite imagery
- Soil microbiome characterization in stressed vs. healthy ecosystem parcels
- Microplastic quantification in local water bodies with particle size distribution
- Tree ring (dendrochronology) analysis correlating to historical climate records
- Air quality sensor network analysis with novel interpolation model
Common mistakes
- Local water quality testing without a hypothesis about what differs and why
- Calling correlations in climate data 'causes' without physical mechanism
- Using Google Earth Engine without validating against ground truth data
- Not accounting for seasonal variation in a single time-point sample
What you'll need
Field sampling equipment, GPS, water quality meters. Satellite imagery analysis requires only a laptop (Google Earth Engine is free). Sediment/rock analysis requires a university geology lab.
Ethics & approvals
Human-subjects (IRB) approval is usually not required for this category. Vertebrate-animal (IACUC) approval is usually not required.
The novelty bar
A specific local environmental question with a mechanistic hypothesis — or a novel remote sensing analysis method. Generic 'water quality of local river' without a specific hypothesis about contamination source is not competitive.
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