Browse real student projects, abstracts, and awards.
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Forests store large quantities of carbon globally. However, a decrease in the forest area is considered to contribute to global warming. Protecting forest ecosystems is vital for curbing glo…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Currently, 40% of the world's population is impacted by limited access to water resources, and conditions will only worsen due to climate change. This water scarcity endangers agricultural p…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Wetlands are crucial to Earth, improving water quality, protecting against floods, and providing homes to hundreds of species. Wetland loss has increased by more than 50% in the US since 200…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Approximately 98% of Americans have detectable levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in their blood. These “forever chemicals” have been recognized as emerging contaminants in…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Many consumer sunscreens contain potentially harmful chemicals to freshwater environments such as endocrine disruptors and carcinogens. Exposure to UV-filters has, over time, been shown to a…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Eutrophication poses serious threats to coastal ecosystems globally, highlighting the urgent need for innovative and sustainable wastewater treatment solutions under a changing climate. This…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic that can end up in our water, making their way into rivers, lakes, and even the ocean. These small particles are a big problem because they dont brea…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Coral reefs are one of Earth's most valuable ecosystems, but they are in decline, fueling a surge of restoration activity across the global tropics. Yet, despite significant scientific advan…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Global Microplastic Pollution, an “Environmental Ticking Time Bomb”, is a significant and ongoing threat to the environment, world's water-quality, and human-health. Humans now ingest >5 gra…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Columnar jointing is a well-known feature of frozen magma flows. World-famous examples include the UNESCO world heritage site, the Giant's Causeway, UK. Columnar jointing can be divided into…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
While climate change's environmental impacts are well recognized, its humanitarian impacts depend on complex interactions between climate and population factors. This study simulated land-us…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
CO2 emissions are a critical global concern, particularly in urban and industrialized regions. Effective tracking of CO2 plumes is essential for understanding climate impacts and managing ai…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Climate changes that include ocean acidification and global warming are serious problems in the ecosystem, affecting marine phytoplankton, including Nannochloropsis oceanica. In the effort t…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Climate change comes in many forms, sometimes from unexpected sources. Manure management facilities are some of the most overlooked, yet consequential facilitators of climate change, contrib…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Schistocerca gregaria (desert locust) is the world's most destructive migratory pest and a serious threat to food security. Existing locust-control tools use real-time field data to monitor…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Coral reefs stand as the ocean's last line of defense, a living barrier vital to the marine ecosystem, supporting approximately 25% of its biodiversity, and providing additional benefits to…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
The large amounts of CO2 generated by human activities results in an increase in ocean acidity on a global scale (Hill, 2018). The ability to determine long-term open ocean acidification tre…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Melatonin made by insects and plants regulates growth and development. Ecdysteroids like 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) promote maturation, molting and butterfly emergence through oxidative stress…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Mycorrhizal fungi establish underground networks that form symbiotic relationships with almost all plant species and facilitate crucial ecological processes, but habitat degradation is their…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Coastal erosion costs around $500 million per year due to damages to essential infrastructure (NOAA, 2025). Scientists have explored nature-based solutions to coastal erosion, specifically t…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
This study describes a novel species of snail in the genus Japonia (subfamily Cyclophoridae, family Cyclophoridae) discovered in Hong Kong. This species is distinguished by unique long, spoo…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Lake-effect precipitation, which significantly impacts regions downwind of the Great Lakes, poses unique forecasting challenges due to its dependence on localized processes and intricate int…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Heavy metal contamination in water poses a significant threat to human health and the environment. Effective detection of heavy metals is crucial for the prompt removal of contamination sour…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
In 2024, over 10,000 tons of oil were spilled into the ocean, damaging the environment and costing billions of dollars in mitigation efforts. This project is a continuation of previous resea…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
The researchers conducted experiments using Pestalotiopsis microspora and Pleurotus pulmonarius creating a non-toxic biodegradable process for decomposing plastic. P. microspora is a fungus…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
The spotted lanternfly (SLF), Lycorma delicatula, is an invasive planthopper species that feeds on a wide variety of plant hosts, causing an estimated $3 billion in damages in the United Sta…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Caffeine, a prevalent compound in human wastewater, has emerged as a reliable anthropogenic biomarker for detecting septic tank contamination in aquatic systems due to its minimal natural oc…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Microplastics, degraded from plastic products, have become a pervasive pollutant that severely impacts marine ecosystems and public health. This issue is especially critical in Hawaii, where…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
The widespread use of synthetic surfactants in household detergents pose major environmental risks due to chemical persistence of non-biodegradable petrochemicals in ecosystems. However, Sap…
ISEF · 2025
Earth and Environmental Sciences
This study compares the performance of four different soil testers to see the most accurate and reliable device for measuring soil. The experiment tests the sensors on three types of soil, s…