Brazoswood High School Wins First Texas Envirothon

The first Texas Envirothon was held on April 27 and 28, 2001, in Nacogdoches. The Envirothon is an academic, extra-curricular environmental and natural resource education program and competition designed for high school students. Teams of five students work together to answer questions focusing on five areas of study (aquatics, forestry, soils, wildlife, and a current environmental issue, which changes each year). Twelve teams participated in the first competition including:

Brazoswood H.S. (Freeport, TX)
Buna H.S.
Gilmer H.S.
Hallsville H.S.
Hull-Daisetta H.S.
Longview H.S.
Lubbock H.S.
Magnolia H.S.
Meridian H.S.
Miami H.S.
Nacogdoches H.S.
N. Lamar H.S. (Paris, TX)

The competition began on Friday morning at Camp Powers, west of Nacogdoches. The students participated in a round robin lecture and application of equipment associated with each of the five topics, including the current issue for 2001 which was urban non-point pollution.

Friday afternoon the teams participated in the field test which was conducted at the Tucker Center/Forest Resources Institute at Stephen F. Austin State University. Once again, teams rotated from station to station answering questions relating to each topic. Questions involved deductive thinking combining knowledge from all five subject areas, using the appropriate field equipment, and a total team effort.

The contest also includes an oral presentation. Students were presented with information focusing on run-off and were asked to develop a comprehensive run-off plan for the SFA campus. University grounds department and city planners from City of Nacogdoches gave tours and presentations of various aspects of the resource base, then the students were "locked up" with supervision for 4 hours to work on their presentations. The presentations were given to a panel of judges on Saturday morning.

Awards are given to the top scoring teams on the field/written exam, by topic, and for the top team in the oral presentations. The winners were: Lubbock High School in the areas of aquatics with 66.7 points and oral presentation with 161.3; Brazoswood High School in the areas of forestry with 61.3 points; soils with 52.2 points, and tying with Lubbock in the current issue, and oral presentation with 161.3 points; Miami High School tied with Brazoswood High School in the area of soils; and Hallsville High School and Nacogdoches High School tied in the area of wildlife with 81.8 points.

The overall results use composite scores and the winners were as follows:

First place honors went to Brazoswood High School with a total of 476.6 points, second place was earned by Lubbock High School with a total of 428.4 points, and third place went to the team from Nacogdoches High School who scored 414.0 points. Brazoswood High School will represent Texas in the International Canon Envirothon, which will be in Jackson, MS, in July 2001.

Sponsors of the 2001 Texas Envirothon were: Eastman Chemical Company, Arthur Temple School of Forestry/Stephen F. Austin State University, the Environmental Institute of Houston/University of Houston at Clear Lake, Tyler Junior College, USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Agricultural Extension Service, Texas Natural Resources Conservation Service, Texas Forest Service, and the Texas Forestry Association. All sponsors were very pleased with the first Texas Envirothon and anticipate that next year's participation will increase.

Once again, congratulations to all the teams and their members and a very special thank you to all the volunteers and sponsors.

Texas Envirothon
http://www.TexasEnvirothon.org