(Shiloh, OH) - Back in April, several Cardinal High School students attended and participated in the annual Envirothon event, marking the first for Cardinal Local Schools. Mr. Clutter and Miss Moon served as the team’s advisors, alongside sophomore Delilah Turon, juniors Evan Everett and Grayson Yoder, and seniors Mila Blankenhorn and Ally Lewis, who finished 28th out of 43 total teams represented by our Cardinal Huskies. Each team had five members, and even the teachers participated in the competition. The judges divided the groups based on age.
Miss Moon’s team did come in first place for the teacher edition, while Mr. Clutter and company came in third. As advisors, the teachers were first given the same test that the students received, just to review it and see what the students were experiencing.
“We were randomly matched with other teachers. We could not be in the same group as our students or the same rotation. They were strict on us, not giving the students any answers or being able to aid them in any way,” said Clutter. “
“It was a big competition with well over 300 students and around 43 different teams,” said Lewis.
In preparation for the competition, our Huskies spent several weeks practicing with a large set of science-based trivia flashcards. This category focused mainly on wildlife, while other categories involved practicing science experiments. The majority of the students practiced on their own time, but with help from Mr. Clutter and Miss Moon, they did meet a few times after school. They even took it amongst themselves to make time during their Enrichment periods.
“The first time we stayed after school, we learned practical knowledge, like how to use a biltmore stick, which is a way to see how many logs are in a tree or measure the diameter of it,” said Turon.
“Another time we met up with Miss Moon, we practiced with wildlife flashcards, where she would show us a species. We would then guess, and if we got it wrong, there was a ton of information on the back that she would read and tell us all about the animal,” said Lewis.
Each team could also access practice packets that prepare you for the local, state, and national environthon competitions.
The event was divided into five categories: aquatics, wildlife, soils, forestry, and current world issues. Each student was encouraged to find a focal category and specialize in it alone. In preparation for the competition, Mr. Clutter and Miss Moon would run practice exams with students to see who can answer the fastest and provide the team with the most accurate answers.
The event was held at The Cooke Family Wildlife Conservation in Shiloh, Ohio, about two hours west of Middlefield. This year’s theme was “Roots and Resiliency: Fostering Forest Stewardship in a Canopy of Change.” Students conducted research and focused on six key topics: Climate Change Projections, Forest Health in a Changing Climate, the Inherent Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Land Stewardship, Vulnerability Assessments and Adaptation Strategies, Legislation and Regulations, and the Boreal Forest. Before the event in April, students and advisors could practice their topic questions beforehand. They were also given specific questions about their sole topics.
“At the actual event itself, we were given a 25-question packet with four multiple-choice questions with four answers to choose from,” said Turon.
“We were given 25 minutes to complete each test for five different stations. It was essentially taking a test in nature,” said Blankenhorn.
“I first thought it was going to be this huge room with lab technology and you would have to figure out forest stuff from there, but in reality it was a huge field trip where the five of us walked around the entire national park and we went to five different locations, all varying in what their themes were,” said Turon. “Some of the locations specialized in their particular themes. For example, we went to a wooded area for the forestry section, and there, we had to name particular trees.”
The creation of the team was first thrown out to Miss Moon’s entire Environmental Science class. Once Blankenhorn and Lewis decided to join, they took matters into their own hands and challenged themselves by finding personalities that matched their own.
“Four out of the five students who went to Environthon also went with me to Costa Rica,” said Mr. Clutter. “Costa Rica has a strong environmental connection and impact, and I also got to know the students over the summer. I learned a little bit about their connection to Environmental Science and Ecology.
“In Costa Rica, we learned a lot about how the people specifically put a lot of importance on their biodiversity and trying to keep their climate clean and everything else around them clean in a more sustainable way. We took those ideas and were able to drag them over to here, in America,” said Turon.
Delilah Turon, a soon-to-be junior, is actively involved in Marching Band, soccer, drama club, and is a member of the Cardinaires. She is also involved in multiple college courses at Cardinal and stays busy with her 4-H clubs and activities. She was the first participant that I spoke with about the environthon event. Her focus was on the soil category.
Next up, Evan Everett is currently enrolled in several Engineering department courses, including Introduction to AutoCAD and Introduction to SolidWorks. He also participated on the Academic Challenge team alongside his current teammate, Grayson Yoder. He was asked to focus on current world issues.
Grayson Yoder, also a junior at Cardinal High School, enjoys running Cross Country in the fall and was recently selected as an officer for the Marching Band. He is a member of the National Honor Society and participates in various music courses, including Concert Band and Jazz Band. Grayson has also competed in Track. For this project, his focus was on the Wildlife category.
“It was a lot more serious than I thought it would be,” said Yoder. “There were over 300 people there, but in my mind I thought it would be more lowkey.”
Ally Lewis represented her senior class with distinction at the Envirothon event, where she focused on the Aquatics category. At Cardinal, she was selected as this year’s Valedictorian and was also a member of the National Honor Society. She has found joy in working in the drama productions for Cardinal.
“Even though I won’t be here next year, I think Envirothon prep would be a great class,” said Lewis. “It is a lot of important information, and if we could study it for even a semester, that would be a lot more preparation. It would make it more public and more people would have the opportunity to join.”
Lastly, Mila Blankenhorn, a foreign exchange student from Switzerland, took on the challenge of a new country and also challenged herself by participating in activities throughout the school year. She played volleyball and took on major roles in both the Fall play and the Spring musical. Blankenhorn was also a member of the Cardinaires. Her teammates considered her to be the teammate who knew it all! She also studied forestry.
Several other schools were represented at the event, including Berkshire, Chardon, LaBrae, and Kenston, among others. Boardman Local Schools took home the title, while Beaver Local and BBH (Brecksville Broadview Heights City School) finished with three teams in the top five. The top four teams advance to the state competition, with a fifth-place finish designated for the alternates. Mr. Clutter is interested in creating an alternate team for next year’s event, potentially allowing two teams to compete.
“There were some schools that had been doing it for what seemed like 20+ years,” said Blankenhorn. “They understood completely what was going on.”
“I feel like we were kind of isolated in a way. Although we were aware of other teams at the event, there was little time to exchange names or engage in conversation. It was an interesting event, but it didn’t foster a lot of student-to-student chatter,” said Turon.
“We are looking forward to doing this again next year,” said Mr. Clutter. “We weren’t sure what we were getting ourselves into. Next year, we plan to incorporate some of the material into the biological sciences curriculum. We plan on participating in the practice Environthon in the fall, and we are looking forward to that,” said Clutter. “The other thing that Miss Moon and I are looking at is engaging the community where we create a native plants garden on campus and getting some students and staff involved with that.”
“If next year we are a little bit more public about the event, and spread the word to students in our building. It’s more than just a science thing, in my opinion,” said Turon. “It’s an event in which people enjoy going out into their backyard.”
Turon even ended the event by tasting the dirt. And yes, you read that right.
“One of the stations was a dirt pit. What you did there was, go inside of the dirt pit and answer a bunch of questions about the soil in Richland County and the reason this is important is because it connects to the type of wildlife and the type of plant growth that determines the animals that live in a wooded area and all of that is connected,” said Clutter. “This was a valuable hands-on experience where you could taste the dirt to determine its texture and other qualities.
The students involved in this year’s project are excited to see their team improve for next year’s competition and are already looking forward to it.