Every year, millions of students work on science fair projects. A very small number go somewhere else entirely. They travel through regional and state competitions, get selected for national review, and eventually land on a stage where the competition isn’t the student in the next classroom but a teenager from South Korea or Germany or Brazil who has been working on the same problem for two years.

Keystone junior Emily is one of those students.

What the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair Actually Is

The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is the largest pre-college science competition in the world. Each year, roughly 1,700 students from nearly 70 countries earn their way to the competition by winning regional and state qualifying events. Getting there at all is a significant accomplishment. The students who compete have already cleared multiple elimination rounds and been evaluated by judges with serious scientific credentials.

At ISEF, students present research in categories ranging from biochemistry and computer science to environmental science, physics, and engineering. Grand awards go to the top finishers in each category. Special awards are presented by government agencies, research institutions, and scientific societies from around the world.

For a high school student, presenting at ISEF means standing in front of working scientists and explaining not just what you found, but why your methodology was valid, what your controls accounted for, and what your results actually mean. It’s a fundamentally different experience from any school or regional competition.

What Made Emily’s Project Competition-Ready

Emily’s project examined the relationship between rainfall, soil type, and erosion on construction sites. This type of research potentially can apply to construction planning, environmental compliance, watershed health, and infrastructure durability. Her research addressed it with the specificity that distinguishes serious scientific work from a classroom exercise.

Projects that reach the ISEF level tend to share a few characteristics. They address a question that a student can’t simply look up but must design an experiment to investigate. They involve controlled variables, replicable methodology, and data collection that can withstand expert scrutiny. And they connect to a broader body of scientific literature, demonstrating that the student understands where their work fits within existing knowledge.

Emily’s approach reflects that. Her question wasn’t simply whether rain causes erosion. It was how different soil compositions respond to precipitation under the conditions created by active construction, and what that means for environmental management. That approach of examining how water, soil, and human activity interact reflects systems thinking rather than isolating a single variable in a vacuum.

She earned a 4th Grand Award in Earth and Environmental Sciences. She was also the only student from the San Antonio region to receive a grand award at this year’s competition.

The Environment Behind the Work

Research projects at this level require sustained mentorship, access to scientific resources, and a school culture that treats student inquiry as genuinely serious work.

At Keystone, science education is structured to build toward independent investigation. Students develop laboratory skills, scientific writing, and research methodology across grade levels, so that by the time they reach upper school, they have the tools to pursue a complex question over an extended period. The school’s small size means that students working on serious projects have direct access to faculty, who can provide sustained engagement with the question and the process.

Emily’s path from a specific, locally relevant question about soil and rainfall to a 4th Grand Award on an international stage is a useful model for any student thinking about what serious science fair work looks like. 

What This Means for Families Evaluating STEM Programs

Parents evaluating schools for STEM often ask a version of the same question: does this school produce students who can do real science, or students who can perform it? A student who can follow a lab protocol is different from a student who can design one. The latter is what competitive research programs, selective universities, and scientific careers actually require.

The schools that produce serious young scientists tend to start early, build methodology skills across grade levels, and create space for genuine inquiry rather than structured exercises alone. If you’re looking for a San Antonio school where your student’s curiosity in science has room to grow into something significant, it’s worth asking what the science program is built to do, and what students have gone on to accomplish.

Keystone’s Upper School science and academic program pages offer a fuller picture of how science education is structured across grade levels. We’d also welcome the chance to show you in person.