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Nature Up Close and Personal
Thursday, June 02, 2005
By Fred A. Mohr
Family connections spurred Shannon Hogan and Evangeline Rauch to join Fulton's Envirothon
team.
"I've always liked to do outdoor things with my dad," said Hogan, a fisherman and a trapper since age
8. Her father, Ed, used to be an adviser with the school team.
"I'm the fourth member of my family on the team," said Rauch, who's interested in a career in chemical
engineering. "It's kind of in my blood."
The five-member team from G. Ray Bodley High School in Fulton which also included captain Terri Evans, Matt Morse
and Keith Cardinali represented the county last week in the 15th annual state Envirothon at Rice Creek Field Station,
part of the State University College at Oswego.
It was the second straight year Fulton made the state finals.
More than 250 ninth- through 12th-graders representing 51 high schools participated in the annual two-day test
of their environmental IQ.
"It's a hands-on scientific competition that gets (students) thinking and learning about environmental issues,"
said Karlee Yurek of New York City, co-chair of the event along with Seth Dennis of Tompkins County. Both work
for the Soil and Water Conservation districts, a primary Envirothon sponsor, in their respective counties.
"We want to get them interested in some of the careers connected to the environment," Dennis said.
The competition has grown into a national event involving more than 500,000 high school students since it began
in 1979 in Pennsylvania.
Last week's competition was broken down into five stations, where students answered multiple-choice questions and
solved hands-on problems in aquatics, forestry, soils, wildlife and managing cultural landscapes. The teams also
made 10-minute oral presentations on cultural landscapes.
The aquatics station required students to determine water turbidity, and chart ground and surface water flow from
topography maps, among other skills.
"They learn a lot about teamwork," said Richard Back, an Oswego State biologist and an aquatics tester.
"There's a lot of problem-solving going on."
His co-tester, Rebecca Schneider of Cornell, said the competition can get intense.
"By the time they get here, there's a real sense of accomplishment that they've made it this far," she
said.
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