Browse real student projects, abstracts, and awards.
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences Fourth Award
The Dana Glacier, a small Little Ice Age cirque glacier in the Sierra Nevada mountains, is rapidly retreating due to climate change. To predict when the Dana Glacier will disappear, I measur…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Under UV light, titanium dioxide performs photocatalytic reactions which produce harmful reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide, which causes phytoplankton mortality. Project Tita…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Over the past few decades, urban areas have been experiencing expedited rates of vegetation growth, a phenomenon known as “urban greening.” The increased vegetation growth and greening trend…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Earthquakes are a major global risk, causing the most fatalities among all natural disasters and billions of dollars in damages. Current earthquake early warning (EEW) systems face significa…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences First Award
As the Basin and Range province is one of the most biodiverse regions, advancements in reconstruction modeling of geologic-climate changes are necessary to investigate potential associations…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Light pollution disrupts diurnal light cycles that insect orders such as Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) adapted to over generations as a cue to time important life events like metamorph…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
American Samoa has much wildlife, such as bats and a diverse selection of birds. Light pollution can negatively affect these creatures as well as other wildlife. Unfortunately, there is no r…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) is classified as a thermoplastic that contains Benzyl Butyl Phthalate (BBP) plasticizers to increase durability in construction; however, BBP is known to cause harm…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Biomass waste is underutilized and frequently burned, used for electricity generation, or left to dispose of itself. This research was conducted to evaluate the potential of a value-added pr…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences Third Award
The use of citizen science has become prominent in studying large-scale environmental issues. Among these issues is urban sprawl, a rapidly growing global trend that is deteriorating drinkin…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Artificial light at night (ALAN) has been a growing environmental concern. In Northwest Ohio, commercial greenhouses and human development near recreational bodies of water, such as Lake Eri…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences Fourth Award
As a member of the Nanticoke Tribe, I am acutely aware that my tribe, along with many other tribes throughout the continent, face a continuous problem due to contamination of their natural w…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
This experiment examined changes in total annual precipitation and average annual temperature and their impacts on the natural carbon sequestration of Pinus Ponderosa. Tree core samples were…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
The study kicked off when curiosity arose as to whether superworm consumption of polyethylene could be a solution to reduce plastic in landfills, based on supporting findings. A question was…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Over the past 50 years, the use of hydraulic fracturing or fracking has increased as the demand for fossil fuels has increased and the process is more efficient at extracting oil and natural…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
For more than a decade, the Tarrytown Reservoirs have had a severe algae problem which has resulted in an imbalanced ecosystem and an unpleasant aesthetic. The problem has been managed with…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
This study examines carbon sequestration by Nannochloropsis algae when cultivated in solutions with different pH levels. If Nannochloropsis is grown in a solution with a pH between 7.5 and 8…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Imagine aquatic life like fish, crawdads, and tadpoles dead on the side of the creek bed. What we dispose of into our waterways matters. Filling the water with surfactants from products like…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences Fourth Award
To better understand the manner of phytoplankton decline due to climate change, this study explored changes in phytoplankton community composition during the spring phytoplankton bloom in th…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
This research applies to the role of Chlorella sp. as a second-generation biofuel which is a possible alternative to fossil fuels. Its biodiversity allows the algae to be sustainable as well…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
An experiment was conducted to study the impact of dyes on water quality. Untreated dye wastewater causes hypoxia, and a lower living standard for populations relying on the body of water. T…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
This experiment will determine if different nitrogen:phosphorus:potassium ratios limit the growth of algae in wetland water. We hypothesized that if we test the effects of varying NPK ratios…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Since 1991, the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) aimed to provide regulation for lead (Pb) and copper (Cu) in public water systems (PWS). Durin…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences Second Award
Low-frequency noise from marine shipping is an underwater acoustic pollutant in oceans. The noise spectrum overlaps with frequencies marine mammals use to communicate and navigate, leading t…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
The COVID-19 pandemic disease is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Sewage testing has been successfully used for the detection of viruses causing human diseases, su…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Enterococci is a bacteria that is found in animal feces and is used by scientists as a measure of water quality. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) associates high enterococci colony…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Each year now, Luxembourgish wildlife is threatened by toxic Cyanobacteria that poisons the water of the biggest lake, The Upper Sure Lake, causing the local tourism sector to be slowed due…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences Third Award
In the troposphere, ozone is a harmful secondary pollutant formed by chemical reactions between nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In 2020, COVID-19 lockdowns broug…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences
In the previous decade, cyanobacteria blooms in rivers have grown in both intensity and frequency due to climate change and water pollution, which are results of human activity. These blooms…
ISEF · 2022
Earth and Environmental Sciences Third Award
The purpose of this project was to determine if vertical migration occurs among any of the zooplankton populations in the littoral zone of Lake Springfield. Samples were collected on five se…