Events
Every September, a new set of 23 national events is released. These events may include build portions (where devices are built prior to competition), lab portions (hands-on sections), or test portions.
Events are organized into five general topics although students almost always explore and compete in events from more than one topic.
Below are the events from this year's season:
2022-2023 Events
For more information on specific events, visit the national website or the student wiki.
Life, Personal & Social Science
Anatomy & Physiology
This event focuses on the structure and function of specific body systems.
Cell Biology
This event focuses on cell biology and cellular biochemistry.
Disease Detectives
This event focuses on the study of diseases and how they spread.
Forestry
This event focuses on tree identification and the study of trees.
Green Generation
This event focuses on the human impact on our planet, solutions, and general ecological principles.
Earth & Space Science
Astronomy
This event focuses on deep-sky objects and the math and physics related to astronomical observations.
Dynamic Planet
This event focuses on the processes which change the Earth, such as glaciers, techtonics, freshwaters, etc.
Remote Sensing
This event focuses on the use remote sensing imagery and data to understand climate change and processes in the Earth system.
Rocks & Minerals
In this event, participants learn to identify rocks, and understand the process of rock formation.
Physical Science & Chemistry
Chem Lab
This event focuses on a selection of chemistry topics, including redox, equilibrium, acid base, thermodynamics, periodicity, etc.
Environmental Chemistry
This event focuses on the chemistry and governmental regulations regarding fresh water environments and pollution.
Forensics
This event focuses on the use of concepts in chemistry and forensics to solve a crime scene.
It's About Time
In this event, teams learn about various topics related to time and construct a precise mechanical clock from scratch.
Trajectory
In this event, participants build a device to launch a ball as close to a target, up to 8 meters away, as possible.
Wifi Lab
In this event, students learn about the principles of electromagnetic wave propagation and construct an antenna designed to transmit a signal at 2.4 GHz.
Technology & Engineering
Bridge
In this event, participants build and test balsa wood bridges to maximize the efficiency given certain constraints.
Detector Building
In this event, participants learn about electronics and circuitry and create an electronic scale from scratch.
Flight
In this event, students make and test a lightweight, rubber band powered plane, designed to stay in the air as long as possible.
Scrambler
This event entails building a vehicle that transports an egg as close quickly to the barrier without cracking it.
Inquiry & Nature of Science
Codebusters
In this event, participants learn to encrypt and decrypt various ciphers.
Experimental Design
This event focuses on the scientific method and students work together to design, complete, and analyze their own experiment.
Fermi Questions
In this event, participants answer a series of “Fermi Questions”; science-related questions that seek fast, rough estimates of a quantity, which is either difficult or impossible to measure directly.
Write It Do It
In this event, one student writes a description of an object and how to build it and the other participant uses this description to try to reconstruct the object.