Western Carolina University

This year in line with the State Science Fair we have increased the number of categories available to Junior and Senior students to six. Please note that biology is now split into A and B depending on the sub discipline of your project, and chemisty is separate from physical science. Please refer to the links for full descriptions of the categories. It is the responsibility of the student and teacher to ensure projets are entered in the correct category.

Elementary Division  (Grades 3-5)
Projects are not divided into categories. Elementary Projects will be judged with outstanding projects receiving an first, second, & third place awards along with honorable mentions. Elementary projects can have from one to three students per projects.

Junior and Senior Divisions  (Grades 6-12)
Categories are:  

• Biological Science A
• Biological Science B
• Chemistry
• Earth/Environmental Science
• Physics
• Technology, Engineer

From one to three students can work on a single project.

Category Desciptions
Great care should be taken in selecting the category for competition that best matches the project. The following descriptions should be of assistance in making the most appropriate decisions. For detailed descriptions, visit the ISEF website at http://www.societyforscience.org/isef/project_categories

Biological Science A
Animal Science
Medicine and Health Science
Microbiology

Biological Science B
Behavioral and Social Sciences
Biochemistry
Cellular & Molecular Biology
Plant Sciences

Chemistry
The science of the composition, structure, properties, and reactions of mattr, especially of atomic and molecular systems.

Earth/Environmental Science
Geology, mineralogy, physiography, oceanography, meterorology, climatology,study of pollution especially related to the environment

Physics
Physics is the science of matter and enrgy and of interactions between the two.

Technology/Engineering
Technology or Engineering projects that directly apply scientific principles to manufacturing and practical uses.