OXFORD,Miss. – Months of preparation paid off for six teams of high school
students who won the North Area Mississippi Envirothon Thursday (Feb.
19) at the University of Mississippi Field Station.
Thirteen
five-member teams participated, and the six highest-scoring teams
advance to the statewide competition. The advancing teams are from
Oxford High School, Millsaps Career and Technology Center, Eupora High
School, New Albany High School, and two teams from Amory High School.
The Envirothon competition is a problem-solving natural resources competition for high school students.
“We
quiz the kids on aquatic ecology, soils, wildlife, a current issue
(biodiversity) and forestry,” said Brad Shedd, field representative at
the Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission and coordinator
of the Envirothon. “The students are asked to identify items such as
trees, soils, skulls and animal tracks. They are also given a 30-minute
written test on each subject.”
While the students competed, Field Station staff talked to teachers about education and research programs at the station, and conducted tours of the station’s facilities.
The teams representing the North Area will compete with the winning teams from the Central Area, South Area and Delta Area for the state title and scholarships. The statewide event is set for May at Roosevelt State Park in Morton. The winning team from this competition will move on to the nationwide Canon Envirothon, in August at the University of North Carolina.
Students on winning teams from the North Area were very excited when they heard that their team would advance.
“It’s just awesome that we get to go to state,” said Hannah Gadd, a senior at Amory High School.
Advancing team member Elizabeth Lutken, a senior at Oxford High School, said she had spent many hours studying with her team for the competition.
“We had several speakers come and talk to us about each of the categories, but we all had to research the current issue on our own,” Lutken said. “We looked at different books and lots of material from last year. We’ve been in the competition for four or five years, and we’ve made it to state the past two years.”
Joy Walker, an AP biology teacher at Eupora High School, has had numerous teams participate in the North Area Envirothon in previous years. Several of those teams have advanced to the statewide competition, Walker said.
“It just exposes them to all the different areas of science,” she said. “They gain knowledge of the different disciplines, and get a chance to study on these subjects. They may even want to major in one of these areas when they get to college.”
Zack Orsborn, a senior at Amory High School, said he believes it’s important for students his age to study about the environment, “because we are the future, we need to know how to conserve the environment, how to keep it intact and how to study about it as well.”
According to the Mississippi Envirothon Web site, http://www.mswcc.state.ms.us/Envirothon/Enviro.htm , the competition serves to teach participants about the environment and issues facing this generation, as well as future generations.
The UM Field Station offers opportunities for research in aquatic and terrestrial ecology. Located 11 miles northeast of the Oxford campus on Bay Springs Road, the 740-acre station lies in a scenic, three-mile-long, V-shaped valley surrounded by wooded hills and teeming with natural springs and seeps. To learn more about research and education programs at the Field Station, go to http://baysprings.olemiss.edu/ .