Back row from left to right, Aidan Schneider, Braedon Combs, Cooper Adams, Cheyenne Blue and Anmol Saini placed first in the Regional Envirothon Competition March 4 and will be heading to the state competition April 29.
Submitted Photo
Demonstrating their mastery of environmental science and real-world ecological issues, the Whiteland Community High School Envirothon team claimed a regional victory and earned a spot in the upcoming state competition.
Envirothon is a hands-on environmental science competition where students test their knowledge in five areas: wildlife, forestry, aquatic ecology, soil and land use, and a current environmental issue, which was non-point source pollution this year. It is an internationally recognized competition with students across the U.S., Canada and China.
Students also learned from environmental science professionals, including biologists, ecologists and professors. The students also competed in a rigorous exam covering these topics.
Taking home the top spot in regionals, one team will now advance to the Indiana State Envirothon Competition on April 29 in West Lafayette, where they will complete another test and deliver a presentation. Another team also represented Whiteland and competed strongly throughout the day.
Science teacher Taylor Tatlock has coached the Envirothon team for three years and has seen a major improvement over the years.
“I’ve definitely noticed an improvement each year,” she said. “It’s a really cool opportunity for students and teachers to get into.”
For senior Braedon Combs, every topic had a challenging section, but for him, the free-response questions were the hardest.
“We had to figure out on our own how to best answer the question instead of using multiple choice questions,” he said. “Forestry was also difficult because we scored the lowest in that, but it was about learning different types of bark and identifying a tree with that particular bark on it.”
For senior Aidan Schneider, he was not expecting to identify various diseases that could be prevalent in animals for the wildlife section, but he persevered.
Senior Cheyenne Blue, who plans to study environmental science after high school, enjoyed the aquatic ecology section because she enjoys learning how plants, animals and microorganisms in water bodies interact with each other.
Combs enjoyed learning about non-point source pollution, which refers to diffuse contamination of water or air that does not originate from a single discrete source and does not meet the point source definition under the Clean Water Act. Non-point sources are runoff from rain or snow melt carrying natural and pollutants to waters such as lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and groundwater.
“I liked it because you could see the difference and how it affects your land and how to try and mitigate it,” Combs said.
Combs said it was easy to study for non-point source pollution because they learned about it in class before going to regionals, making it easier to study.
Senior Anmol Saini said being on the Envirothon team has helped her be more aware of what’s going on in the world environmentally and joining in group studies helped them bring home first place.
Tatlock said the students are the ones studying and bringing home the wins, showing their dedication to learning about the world they live in.
“Their dedication and perseverance are what really shocks me,” she said. “I am just excited to even get this opportunity to join them.”
Tatlock believes the team has a good chance to place first in the state competition, but is setting their goals to place in the top five. If the team wins the state competition, they will advance to nationals, where Whiteland students could face off against other Envirothon teams from the U.S., China and Canada at Mississippi State University in July.
“I know they’re very excited about the state competition, and this just gives students the opportunity to learn more about the environment to see if it’s something they want to get involved in,” Tatlock said.