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Student Challenge

Step Into Your Future

Calling all students in Years 10, 11 and 12 with a sense of adventure and burn to contribute to real-world environmental issues!

Full scholarships are available for you to join in week-long research expeditions during your school holidays.

You’ll live and work in the field alongside Earthwatch scientists, doing hands-on research work like surveying fauna and flora, and monitoring carbon and water. As well as contributing directly to conservation research, you’ll increase your environmental and scientific acumen, learn about careers and future pathways, and make friends with other action-oriented students.

2024 Programs

Ecosystems of the Murray River and Mallee

Applications are now closed 

Location: Calperum Station, South Australia
Dates: 27th September - 3rd October 2024.

Eligibility: This expedition is open to students in Year 10, 11 or 12 attending a South Australian or Victorian government school.

Protecting Wetlands for the Future

Applications are now closed


Location: Mackay, Central Queensland 
Dates: June 26 - July 3, 2024


Eligibility: The expedition is open to students in Year 10, 11 or 12 at Queensland Government schools only.

Past Programs

Protecting the Reef’s Coastal Frontier

Gladstone, Queensland: 2022/2023

Open to students in Year 10, 11 or 12 at Queensland Government schools. 

See more information via expedition flyer 

Ecosystems of the Murray River and Mallee 

Calperum Station, South Australia: 2nd – 8th October 2022

Open to students in Year 10, 11 or 12 at South Australia Government schools.

See more information via expedition flyer 

Have question? Email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Past Attendees

Courtney Taylor - July 2022

Protecting the Reef’s Coastal Frontier expedition

"I have come back from this expedition inspired and with a mission. I left home rather confused as to what I am doing next year, and I have returned knowing exactly where my passion lies. Upon my return I have written newsletter articles for my school about this opportunity, I have convinced my student council to install bird strike stickers through school, and I have continued my fundraising for the Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors (I have now raised over $10,000). Additionally, I have been looking into further citizen science projects to partake in for the future as well as a career in this same industry. Next year I plan to begin an education degree in hopes to join an Environmental Educational Institute to help inform future students of the importance of these habitats. I believe this trip has truly helped me understand the importance of this."

Joe Buden - 2018

Ecosystems of the Murray and Mallee Expedition

"I went on the April 2018 expedition to Calperum Station, and I want to say thank you. That experience has really redefined my relationship with the Australian environment, my sort of fundamental philosophy on it. I've realised that Australia is a nation very fundamentally rooted in our landscape, that our national soul is built on it. That in every Australian story, from Ned Kelly to Red Dog, the Land is a character, that there is a reason we sing "I am the rock, I am the sky, the rivers when they run." That very close physical interaction and experience with the country I experienced on Earthwatch has built that within me. I honestly dream of travelling to Tasmania and seeing, touching, the Centurion Tree. I've also realised that the national soul is under threat. That environmental policy is on the path to annihilate the foundation of our national myths, and leave our next generation a nation utterly removed from it's own spirit. As of last friday, I led more than forty people from my school to attend the school walkout in Melbourne. Slowly, steadily, you are making a difference, and so from the bottom of my heart I have to say thank you, so much to everyone at Earthwatch. That expedition has also helped me grow some of my strongest friends, however far they may be, I'm even looking into travel options over the next couple of months to see them again."

Chayton Barber - 2017

Australia's Vanishing Frogs Expedition 

"I’m so glad I was accepted for the Earthwatch expedition last year, without it I never would have been involved in what I have since. It sparked a great fire in me. It gave me focus onto what I wanted to achieve in my life, at a time when I was needing to choose a path. And guess what? I’ve just got into a Bachelor's degree at Macquarie University for Biodiversity and Conservation Science! I can’t thank you enough for last year."

Michela Skipp - 2018

Australia's Vanishing Frogs Expedition

"The experience was absolutely amazing and has been a journey I will not forget. I came away from the trip with a profound new knowledge about ecology and mathematics, and gained a new perspective and appreciation for our natural environment. I think going forward it is increasingly important for us to be doing new research and have more work in the environmental and ecology sectors as they are both very much threatened by human impacts."