Pennington
Soil & Water Conservation District

The Minnesota Envirothon is an outdoor learning event for students grades 9-12.  It is designed to promote natural resource involvement and education through hands-on competition.  The event is coordinated by the Minnesota's Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

 

The first Envirothon was established in 1979 by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts under the name "Evironmental Olympics". The event spread throughout the country and in 1993 Minnesota held its first competition with 100 students participating. Today, over 1,200 students participate in 9 regions throughout the state. Pennington County is part of Region One. Our first Envirothon took place in 1994 with 8 teams competing at the Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge.  Currently, the competition rotates between Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge and Lake Bronson State Park.

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Here is how the event works...Teams consisting of 5 students, visit 5 different outdoor stations, learning about: Aquatics, Forestry, Soils, Wildlife, and a current event topic that changes every year.  Students are then given a 25 point exam relating to each of the station’s topics.  At the sixth station, the students give a brief (7-10 minute) oral presentation in front of a panel of judges worth 30 points.  The 3 teams with the most points after completing all 6 stations are the area winners and earn the right to advance to the state competition.  The winner of the state competition then has the opportunity to enter the national competition.

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This year Area 1 had 94 students (twenty teams) from eight schools that competed in the event.