MITCHELL – On April 26, the Indiana State Envirothon competition will be held and three local teams will compete: two from Mitchell High School, and one from Salem. Those teams are ready to compete!
The South Central Regional Envirothon competition was held at the Lawrence County 4-H Fairgrounds in March. Nineteen teams of high school students from throughout southern Indiana competed in that contest. The top three teams from the regional contest are eligible to now compete at the state contest.
Mitchell High School teams took first and third place in the regional competition. Salem High School took second place. The winner at the state level will represent Indiana in the North American competition in New Brunswick, Canada.
Envirothon is a competitive learning event for high school students. The contest tests the student’s knowledge of environmental resources including aquatics, soils, forestry, wildlife, and a current environmental issue. This year’s environmental issue was Adapting to Climate Change. The regional contests also include presentations by local professionals in each of these resource areas: forestry, aquatic ecology, soil and land use, and wildlife.
Mitchell’s two teams are coached by Robyn Embry. Embry said she uses the Envirothon competition as a project for her AP Environmental Science class. It inspires her students. Team member, Elizabeth Gillespie, said she plans to pursue a career in wildlife biology, so really enjoys Envirothon because it directly pertains to that. Plus, it’s a lot of fun to be able to hang out with her friends while competing in something they are all interested in.
Mitchell High School has placed in the top three teams at the regional Envirothon competition in 2011, 2012, and every year since 2014 (10 years in a row, eleven times total). Each of those years they went on to the State Contest. And while they have not yet won the State contest- they are hopeful that this may be the year!
When asked how the Mitchell team continues to do so well, Emerie Russell said, “Working as a team and learning to help each other with our variety of topics was definitely our secret to success. I have family that work for the Indiana DNR and studying with them helped me prepare for my topic of forestry and for the wildlife topic.” The Envirothon experience will be an event she will always remember.
Katlyn Hall added, “It was nice to be able to work with people who had the same interest in the environment.” She noted, “I think the secret to our success was communication and working together to look over the materials before competing. I am looking forward to the state contest. These topics are important because they impact everyone, not just people from rural areas.” She said it has been great to be able to work with other young people to get a better understanding of how the environment impacts the world around us.
Embry said, “I love Envirothon because it is such a good reinforcement of what I teach in my AP Environmental Science class. Students have a chance to hear personally from experts who work in the fields they’ve been learning about, and then to demonstrate their learning at the state competition through an authentic project that connects to their community.” She emphasizes, “That’s the kind of learning that sticks with young people beyond high school.”
Embry noted there are several former Mitchell High School Envirothon team members who have gone on to college and careers related to natural resources. She believes competing in the Envirothon played some role in that.
The second-place team at the South-Central Contest was Salem High School, coached by Seth Purlee. The Salem team has also regularly done very well at the regional contest.
The teams are now working on their presentations for the state contest which give the students a practical application of the issues their local community faces. In those presentations, the team will role-play, becoming the climate change committee for their area, who have developed an action plan for their community to make it more sustainable/resilient. They need to develop and present a plan of action to consider water use and quality, forestry, wildlife, and soil/land use for their community.
