Envirothon

Envirothon is an annual environmentally themed academic competition held by the United States and Canada. The competition is open to students in grades 9-12, testing them on four core subjects of forestry, soils and land use, aquatic ecology, and wildlife, along with a current issue environmental subject, which changes every year. Currently, forty-four U.S. states and nine Canadian provinces for a collective of over 500,000 studentsCitation
title = Canon Envirothon Official Webpage
year = 2008
url = http://envirothon.vologon.com/index.php ] participate in the competition.States and provinces across the United States and Canada each have their own competitions from which the champion team earns the privilege of representing their state/province at the Canon Envirothon competition, held each summer in a different U.S. state or Canadian province. In areas with a considerable number of teams, subdivisions such as county, regional, or district competitions are also held. Teams must win these intermediary competitions in order to move on to the state/province levels.

History

In 1979, the Pennsylvania Soil and Water Conservation Districts set up the Environmental Olympics, later renamed Envirolympics, to encourage interest in environmental issues through hands-on competition. The first official state competition was hosted in 1984 with six competing counties [Citation
title = Pennsylvania Envirothon Official Webpage
year = 2008
url = http://www.envirothonpa.org/index.shtml ] . Expanding rapidly to include forty conservation districts by 1987, it gained attention from other states, and in 1988, the program became the National Envirothon, with participation from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Ohio. In 1992, Nova Scotia became the first Canadian province to join the competition. Prior to Canon's sponsorship whereby the program was again renamed to Canon Envirothon, the competition was sponsored by various state, local, and provincial conservations programs and associations. Canon began its support in 1997, and in 1999, became the title sponsor of the competition between the U.S. states and Canadian provinces, local sponsers still sponser lower level competition.

Competition

Competion participant are generally composed of teams sponsored by school clubs or classes, but also includes teams sponsored by 4H and other such non-scholastic organizations.

Competition week at the Canon Envirothon level, includes various outings and seminars for both the students and their advisors. Most of these outings are linked to the current topic and provide information on the area in which the competition is being held.

During the competition, each team must complete five written tests -- consisting of various question types, identifications, and hands-on activities -- and also must prepare an oral presentation on the current topic, which the team presents to a panel of judges. Each test is scored out of 100 points and the presentation is scored out of 200 points. The team with the highest cumulative total of points at the end of the scoring is the winning team. Recognition is also given to teams with the highest scoring in each of the categories.

The 2008 Canon Envirothon was held in Flagstaff, Arizona, hosted at Northern Arizona Unversity. Delaware's Charter School of Wilmington won the Canon Envirothon. Top 5 results are:

1. Delaware - Charter School of Wilmington
2. Missouri - Parkway North High School
3. Pennsylvania - Penncrest High School
4. New York - Candor High School
5. Ohio - Chardon High School
[http://www.envirothon.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=5&Itemid=34]

The 2007 champions of the Canon Envirothon are from Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Falls Village, Connecticut.

The 2007 top five teams were(scores):

1. Connecticut(590.50)

2. Pennsylvania (579.00)

3. Delaware (544.25)

4. Missouri (531.00)

5. New Jersey (503.40)

The 2007 ecostation champions were(scores):

Aquatics: Florida (84.00)

Soils: Connecticut, Tennessee (92.00)

Wildlife: Pennsylvania(90.00)

Forestry: Pennsylvania (100.00)

Current Issue: Connecticut(76.00)

Oral Presentation: New Jersey, Missouri (179.33)

References

External links

* [http://www.envirothon.org Envirothon official website]