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ARIZONA ENVIROTHON

PART OF NORTH AMERICA'S LARGEST HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION ENVIRONMENTAL COMPETITION

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2025 Arizona Envirothon - April 4-5
Location: Camp Tontozona - Payson, AZ
 

2025 Current Issue:
Fostering Forest Stewardship in a Canopy of Change

2024 Winning Team - Basis Tucson North

ABOUT

What Is Envirothon?

Arizona Envirothon is modeled after the National Conservation Foundation Envirothon (NCF Envirothon), North America’s largest natural resource competition for high school students.  Arizona’s competition is open to all high schools within the state.  Interested students form a 5-member team, study and learn about our natural resources and then compete for the opportunity to win significant prizes and represent Arizona at the annual NCF Envirothon.

Students and their coaches prepare for the competition with assistance from natural resource professionals.  The major areas of study include aquatic ecology, soils and land use, wildlife, forestry, and a current environmental theme that changes yearly.  Students must learn about each topic area and more importantly understand that these resources are not isolated subjects, but rather interact within a given ecosystem.

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders and none today can question the importance and benefits of environmental stewardship.  The Envirothon helps students to develop the critical thinking skills that are necessary to manage and conserve natural resources in a sustainable manner, always mindful of economic, social, and environmental concerns.

Both the Arizona Envirothon and NCF Envirothon programs encourage working in partnership with natural resource management professionals, the education community, and the general public.  These programs strive to create an effective multidisciplinary educational tool that will help our state’s schools to nurture environmentally aware students; meet an immediate need to teach more environmental education; and to recognize students, grades 9-12 who achieve excellence in natural resource management, knowledge and skills.

Our hope is that participants will gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of how individual actions affect natural resource issues; the interactions and interdependencies of our environment; current natural resource issues; agencies available to assist them in resource protection matters; and the need to become environmentally aware, action-oriented adults.

A Brief History...

Pennsylvania leads the way

In 1979, the Pennsylvania Soil and Water Conservation Districts created an “Environmental Olympics” competition as an approach aimed to encourage high school students to become interested in natural resource conservation and environmental issues. The Environmental Olympics, later shortened to Enviro-Olympics, quickly gained popularity as a hands-on outdoor competition designed to challenge and test each student’s knowledge of soils, aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife, and current environmental issues.

For nearly a decade, the Pennsylvania Enviro-Olympics program demonstrated its ability to promote environmental literacy and supplement education in grades 9-12. The program quickly grew in size to include participation by 40 conservation district teams at the 1987 Pennsylvania State Enviro-Olympics, providing greater visibility for the program and stimulating the interest of neighboring states.

In 1988 the program became known as the Envirothon. That year, teams from Ohio, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania competed at the first National Envirothon hosted and sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts.

Arizona joins the Envirothon

Arizona Envirothon was established in 1997 by representatives of several agencies and organizations throughout Arizona, including the Agua Fria-New River NRCD, Arizona Association for Learning in and about the Environment, and the Phoenix Zoo. That same year Canon U.S.A., Inc. began supporting the Envirothon In 1998, Arizona Envirothon held its first competition with six teams. In 1999, eleven teams competed. In both years, the Arizona team won first place in the Canon Envirothon. Each member of the winning team received a $2,500 scholarship.

Historically, Envirothon funding came from local conservation districts, state conservation committees, state, federal and provincial conservation organizations, and provincial forestry associations. In 1997,
Canon U.S.A., Inc. began supporting the Envirothon program and, in 1999, became the title sponsor until 2013. The program currently operates under the name NCF-Envirothon as part of the National
Conservation Foundation (Washington D.C.).


National Conservation Foundation (NCF)- Envirothon is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization established to coordinate the delivery of an environmental education program for high school students throughout North America and China (2016). With generous sponsorships from local conservation districts, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, Forestry Associations, the National Association of Conservation Districts, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Smithfield Foods and many others, the Envirothon has
proven to be an exciting and useful tool for incorporating natural resource education into high school classrooms.


More than 50,000 students across the United States and Canada are positively influenced by the Envirothon each year. And now, the Envirothon is displaying promise in becoming international in scope
as more countries such as Mexico, Turkey, Japan, and Australia are showing interest in the program. Arizona State Envirothon is proud to be a part of the incredible history of this important environmental
education program.

The Competition

The Briefing 

Before the competition begins, teams are briefed on general ideas of each topic tested.  This is a quick overview that allows students to ask resource professionals final questions before the competition begins.  Students will have the opportunity to get basic instruction on how to use testing equipment and how to read instruments properly.

Ecostation Testing

The testing portion of the competition occurs in rotating ‘Ecostations’.  There are several of these stations, where students receive one written test per team.  At each station, a series of questions are asked.  The questions may require the students to perform a test using instruments, observe something, or may be a question based on knowledge of what they have gained from studying.  Questions may be in various formats: true/false, multiple choice, short answer, fill in the blank, etc.  Each question is worth one or more points.

Oral Presentation

The oral presentation is meant to be a way for students to bring all the information they have learned to develop a management scenario.  The scenario will encompass all or some of the topics (aquatic ecology, soils and land use, forestry, wildlife, agriculture, energy, waste management and the current issue theme for the year.)  The students work as a team to understand the scenario and provide management ideas to satisfy all the stakeholders involved.  This is a huge task because it means that the students must “wear the hat” of wildlife managers, soil scientists, foresters, aquatic ecologists, and many more professionals to understand the entire scenario. ask questions on all Envirothon topics.

Awards

The top three teams are awarded with various prizes.  These include gift certificates ranging from $50 – $100, plaques, medals, and other merchandise.  The first place team is also offered an expense-paid opportunity to represent Arizona at the North American Envirothon, North America’s largest natural resource competition for high school students.

Scoring and Placement

Scores from the Ecostation testing and the Oral Presentation are combined, and the 3 highest scoring teams continue on in the competition to present their oral presentation to a different panel of judges and the entire Envirothon assembly.  These teams’ scores are recalculated with the final presentation, and the event winner is determined.

The winning team from the Arizona Envirothon is sent on a weeklong expense-paid trip to the NCF Envirothon competition.  The team is provided with room, board and travel to attend the competition, held annually in July/August in a different sponsoring state or Canadian province.

More than 44 states and 8 Canadian provinces participate in this prestigious event – this is truly the “best of the best.”  The top teams are awarded scholarships ranging from $1000 – $3000 per student.

*Adapted from the draft National Standards for Environmental Education (NAAEE), August 1995 draft.

REGISTRATION

Registration

Thank you for your interest in registering for the Arizona Envirothon. To complete your registration, please download the registration packet by clicking on the link below, fill it out completely, and return it to us by U.S. mail.

** Please Note: In accordance with Arizona State Envirothon Rules and Procedures, each team must consist of five members from the same school/organization.

The registration application must be received by Arizona Envirothon no later than December 13, 2024, in order to be officially registered for the 2025 Arizona State Envirothon competition. All applications must include:

  • Team Registration Form

  • Student Registration & Consent Forms

  • Code of Conduct Forms

  • Coach/Chaperone Registration & Release Forms

  • Photocopies of insurance cards (front and back)

  • $75/ person Non-refundable registration fee

Mail To: Arizona Envirothon P.O. Box 25698, Tempe, Arizona 85285 (Note - this is our new mailing address)

TRAINING WORKSHOPS

Three training workshops will be held leading up to the competition:

     Soils & Aquatic Ecology: November 2, 2024 - Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch, Gilbert (10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.)

     RSVP to pjjustice57@gmail.com by October 18 with number of attendees.

     

     Forestry & WildlifeDecember 14, 2024 - Hassayampa River Preserve, Wickenburg (10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.)

     RSVP to pjjustice57@gmail.com by November 29 with number of attendees.

    

     Fostering Forestry Stewardship: January 11, 2025 - On-line via Microsoft Teams (10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.)

Please direct questions regarding the competition, trainings or completing registration forms to either:

Pam Justice at 602-418-0471 or pjjustice57@gmail.com; or

Noel Fletcher at 928-899-7953 or noel.fletcher.rfs@outlook.com.

Thank You Sponsors

Click the link below for sponsorship information and benefits.

Chairman's Club

$10,000+

Ecologist Circle

$2,500 - $4,999

Naturalist Level

$25 - $499

Executive Circle

$5,000 - $9,999

Golden Eagle Level

$500 - $2,499
  • AZ Assoc. of Conservation Districts

  • AZ Beef Council

  • AZ Pork Council

  • AZ Soil & Water Conservation Society

  • Buckeye Valley NRCD Ed Center

  • Creative Plants

  • Gila Bend NRCD

  • Eloy NRCD

  • Leister Farms

  • Pima NRCD

  • Santa Cruz NRCD

  • Tucson Electric Power

  • USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

SPONSOR
  • Agua Fria – New River NRCD

  • Salt River Project

  • Stotz Equipment

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Executive Committee

Noel Fletcher, Co-Chair

USDA Prescott National Forest (Retired)

Christine Brehm, Awards Committee Chair

Desert Botanical Garden

Vacant, Fundraising Committee Chair

TBD

Pam Justice, Co-Chair

University of Arizona, Project WET (Retired)

Jeff Humphrey, Public Relations Committee Chair

US Fish & Wildlife Service (Retired)

Vacant, Site Committee Chair

TBD

Vacant, Testing & Education Committee Chair

TBD

Contact Us

Noel Fletcher, Program Co-Chair

Pam Justice, Program Co-Chair

Mailing Address

Arizona Envirothon
PO Box 25698
Tempe, AZ 85285

Jeff Humphrey, Publics Relations Chair

602-680-0853

jahumphrey@q.com

Rodney Held, Webmaster

CONTACT
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