For almost three decades now, the Manitoba Envirothon has sought to connect high school students in the province with environmental awareness through its annual competition.
The program, hosted by the Manitoba Association of Watersheds (MAW), combines team competition, learning about environmental issues, and helping students develop the skills necessary to address these issues into one hands-on experience.
This year, after two teams from Carman Collegiate sponsored by the Redboine Watershed District competed in the Envirothon at the regional level, one team received the news that it has qualified for the provincial level.
Testing on a variety of topics
The high school students who will compete at the next level include Megan Gross, Jacob Florell, Ezra Doell, and Mackenzie Dyck.
So far, the group says that as part of the program, it has had crash courses on ice and how to assess its thickness, as well as on what goes into soil, how runoff works, and the human impact on soil fertility, among other things.
Regionals in April
The high school students are just coming off a successful performance at a regional competition on April 16th.
“We got there, and they just kind of gave us a little orientation. Then, we had a training session in the morning,” says Gross. “That kind of looked a little different for all of us, because we have our assigned topics.”
This year, students were tested in five areas: aquatic ecology, wildlife ecology, plants and forests, soil and land use, and the competition's theme — invasive species.
Each topic was covered in an education pack made accessible to students by MAW.
The structure of the competition
Dyck says that before competing, each student had the chance to review their assigned topic. After that, students answered questions about their area during the field test portion of the Envirothon.
“There's also the oral presentation that gets prepared before the test,” she says. “We picked a specific invasive species for this year, and we created a presentation about the harm the species does, some ways that we can help prevent the harm, and a couple of other things.”
The students made waves at the competition in April by choosing humans as their invasive species, which they say was a challenge to tackle.
Why Envirothon?
Although there are many potential reasons to join Envirothon, from learning about the environment to meeting people along the way, Gross says she's in it to gain a fresh experience.
“I was really interested in just getting out there and trying something new involving any sort of nature or the environment,” she says.
“I'm passionate about recycling and all the environmental safety stuff, ... so I just wanted to try something new and see [environmental issues] from different angles.”
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Dyck says her reason for participating was similar.
“When I first took biology last year, I found the ecology section really interesting, and I wanted to go a little bit more in-depth with that. I thought Envirothon would be a really good opportunity to learn and grow my understanding.”
For Doell, the program's benefit is the “opportunity to learn new skills,” especially public speaking.
Preparing for the provincial competition
Looking forward, Gross says that the provincial competition, which takes place from May 22nd – 24th at Camp Arnes, will have a similar structure, but there will be less time to prepare for its components.
Dyck, for one, is looking forward to it.
“I'm excited,” she says. “Last year we had a bit unfortunate weather and our field test didn't quite go as planned, so I'm really excited to give it a second shot and see how it's supposed to run, but also just meeting all of the other teams from all across Manitoba and seeing what their ideas are and what they've thought of.”
As for how the students will prepare for the big occasion?
“Study, study, study,” says Doell.
With files from Candace Derksen