OSCEOLA-LAKE CONSERVATION DISTRICT
Michigan
Envirothon Program Director - Teresa Salveta
2004 Michigan
Michigan Envirothon is a fun and exciting way high school students (and their adult advisors) learn about their natural resources. Michigan Envirothon is designed to foster, critical thinking, wise stewardship, and community involvement.
The purpose of the Envirothon is to provide environmental education to high
school students and their adult advisors (teachers, 4H leaders, scout leaders)
throughout the state of
The program emphasizes hands-on learning in the out-of-doors in addition to
academic study. This environmental education curriculum is a form of preparation
for an outdoor, state-wide natural resource competition. Adult advisors work
with teams of five students throughout the year preparing for the competition.
Study takes place using environmental resource packets prepared by resource
professionals from all over
Regional training is held in the spring with instruction and hands-on
activities. In the spring the teams meet for a day and a half of learning and
testing. Testing and teaching occur at an outdoor site, which changes location
each year to highlight different
The seven subject areas covered are:
- An Environmental Issue which
changes each year.
(The 2004 Environmental issue is Natural Resource Management in the Urban Environment.) - Wildlife
- Forestry
- Aquatics/Water
- Sustainable Agriculture
- Energy
- Soils/Geology
The State competition will be held at Lake Ann Baptist Camp on
The next morning, the teams of students compete in an outdoor test at different sites called "ecostations." Students are tested on their knowledge and hand-on interpretation of different landscape features and environmental components by answering 45-50 questions per site. Teams rotate through 4-5 different ecostations, which reflect the land uses of the area chosen for the current year. Land uses include: urban, residential, farming, wetlands, surface water, open meadow and forest. Students must reflect their understanding of how the seven topic areas are interrelated on a site specific basis at each ecostation. In addition, students must understand how human choices affect the ecostation characteristics and how ecosystem characteristics affect human choices.
Envirothon teams must also undertake a community environmental outreach project each year, turning environmental knowledge into action. Students must identify possible natural resource issues in their community, then develop a project which addresses an issue they feel is a priority in their community. Students must develop a plan for their project and enact it. The plan must include interaction with community members outside of their team. This component gives students an excellent opportunity to address urban/environmental issues and develop public awareness or make community improvements to the environment in their area. In this component, students develop their own environmental empowerment model for their future involvement in urban environmental issues. Team projects are judged at the state competition by a panel of judges.
Envirothon scoring is based upon 80% of the score of the ecostation tests,
while 20% of the grade is taken from the community outreach projects. The top
scoring team goes on to represent
Michigan
- To cultivate in high school students a desire to learn about our natural resources.
- To develop a greater appreciation for our reliance upon the natural environment.
- To provide students with experience in environmental activities to enable them to become environmentally-aware adults.
- To develop the student's knowledge of the effects individual actions can have on the environment.
- To explore the interactions and interdependencies of our environment, renewable and non-renewable.
- To make students aware of local resource organizations available to assist them in environmental matters.
Major funding and partnership for the Michigan
The Michigan Department of Agriculture
And the additional co-sponsors and partners include:
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
University of Michigan
Consumers Energy
Olivet College
Cabela's Inc.
Canon Inc.
For more information concerning the Envirothon program contact:
Michigan Association of Conservation Districts
201
Phone:
Fax:
email: tlsalveta@aol.com
MICHIGAN ENVIROTHON CELEBRATES 10 YEARS -
2/5/2004 PRESS RELEASE
Contact Teresa
for your copy of the 2004 Michigan
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