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New York State Envirothon |
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Oswego Daily News OSWEGO TOWN, NY – Hundreds of students from all across New York State
descended on Rice Creek Field Station at SUNY Oswego Thursday.
For the second consecutive year, the school's team earned a spot in the state competition by defeating 15 teams from 10 area schools in the county division during competition May 6 at Camp Hollis. The team, captained by senior Terri Evans also featured sophomores Matt Morse and Evangeline Rauch as well as juniors Shannon Hogan and Keith Cardinelli. On Thursday, however, they placed 29th out of 50 teams representing teams from schools in every New York State county. "We're kind of disappointed, but we're still proud of accomplishments," Evans said. "We are going to come back next year with an even stronger team. We gained a lot of experience this year and I am the only member not coming back." Evans will enter the Syracuse University School of Forestry in the fall. The annual competition, coordinated by soil and water conservation districts statewide, strives to tests students' understanding of regional natural resources and environmental issues while cultivating a desire to learn more about this field. Teams of five students compete in hands-on environmental education projects at the county level, with winners advancing to the statewide competition. The winner of the event at SUNY Oswego, Candor Central School from Tioga County, will participate in the 2005 Canon Envirothon at Southwest Missouri State University in July. The competition will also involve teams from Canada. The first New York State Envirothon was held in 1990. Now held in most states and Canadian provinces, these programs reach more than 500,000 students every year, according to the New York State Envirothon Web site, www.nysenvirothon.org Canon U.S.A. is the major sponsor of the national competition. Michael Virgintino, Canon senior manager, said he was very impressed with the students at Rice Creek. "These kids are fabulous, all of them," he said. "They are taking this event very seriously and having fun, too. We have been involved in this since 1997; it is one of our many environmental programs." There are competitions for middle school, high school and even PhD students, Virgintino said. Students put their environmental knowledge to the test in "aquatics," "forestry," "soils," "wildlife," and "current issues." Rauch said the forestry part of the event was harder than she thought it would be. "So far, the 'current issues' has been our best event," she said. "Forestry was pretty hard," Hogan agreed. "We didn't do too well in that one. But I understand quite a few other teams had a hard time with it, too." The team members said they wanted to do well since they were representing the host county. "We didn't have much time between the county and state events, so we picked what we thought would be the most difficult events and studied for that," Evans explained. "And we tried to focus on our oral presentation, too." The competition was tough, Evans added. "In an event like this you have to stay focused on what you are doing and not worry about the other teams," she said. Mike Bufano and Pat Hartnet of Westhill High School were part of the team representing Onondaga County. "This is a tough competition," Bufano said. "There are five categories that you are tested in. It was a lot of stuff to cover, but I think we did pretty well." The Onondaga County team finished in 12th position. The team won the regional Envirothon, but the state competition was even more intense, they said. "We all have areas that we know a little bit more about, but over all we're working as a team and trying to help each other figure out things," Hartnet said. As the teams sat in Room 101 of Lanigan lecture hall on the campus, pictures of the winning regional teams flashed on the large screen in the front of the room. When their team's photo appeared, many of the teams and their chaperones and volunteers applauded. Prizes were handed out to the top three teams – Tioga County, St. Lawrence County and Broome County. Teams that were the top scorers in the events were also recognized. All of the teams did an outstanding job, Karlee Yurek, event co-chair, told the students. She encouraged them to continue their "fabulous work" in the environmental field. Seth Dennis, the other co-chair, thanked everyone for making the event a success. More than $40,000 in donations was raised to support the competition, he said. |
