More than 300 students and teacher-coaches from Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are converging on the University of Pittsburgh Johnstown and Windber Recreation Park to utilize their year-long “Envirothon” experience to vie for the championship title at the Pennsylvania Envirothon.
During the two-day competition, teams accept the natural challenge and participate in a series of field-oriented tests that focus on soils/land use, aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife, current environmental issues, and discovering energy.
Teams also prepare and deliver oral presentations to panels of judges that evaluate each team on its problem-solving capabilities and presentation skills to help solve the specific environmental challenge posed during the competition.
Students compete for a share of more than $10,000 in educational scholarships and the honor to represent Pennsylvania at the NCF-Envirothon, North America’s largest high school natural resource education competition.
Pennsylvania teams have won the now international Envirothon competition in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2017. (No pressure here.)
And, actually, they should because conservation districts in Pennsylvania were the first to develop the Envirothon environmental knowledge competition program for high school students.
PA Envirothon is honored to have several state agency representatives join us at this year’s event. Timothy Schaeffer, PA Fish & Boat Commission Executive Director, will address the students Tuesday evening at UPJ.
Secretary Russell Redding, Department of Agriculture and Secretary Patrick McDonnell, Department of Environmental Protection will join us for the awards ceremony on Wednesday afternoon at Windber Recreation Park along with other state agency representatives.
Collaborating Pennsylvania agencies include County Conservation Districts, the Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, Fish and Boat Commission, Game Commission, U.S.D.A. Natural Resources Conservation Service, Association of Conservation Districts, State Conservation Commission, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, and NCF-Envirothon.
Other sponsors and partners include Shell Oil Company, EQT Foundation, UGI Utilities, Weis Markets, PPL Foundation, The Hershey Company, Chief Oil & Gas, Smithfield Foods, National Park Service, and National Energy Foundation.
For more information, visit the Pennsylvania Envirothon webpage.
Photo: 2018 winners from Carmichaels Area High School in Greene County.)
Related Stories:
No comments :
Post a Comment