EAST LANSING – Students from Glen Lake High School placed 17th out of 54 teams nationwide in the Soils category at the North American Envirothon, an annual environmental education competition held the first week in August at California.

The top five winners for 2010 included California, Delaware, Minnesota, Florida and Maryland, respectively.

“Michigan Enviorthon is pleased with and proud of the accomplishments of the Glen Lake students,” said Marjorie Longcore, Michigan Envirothon Board Chair and Education Programs Manager for Consumers Energy. “This school has been a Michigan Envirothon participant for a long time and it was great to see their hard work and dedication rewarded with the honor of participating in the Canon Envirothon. [Team Advisor] Karen Richard has been a tireless leader of Envirothon Teams from Glen Lake for many years.”

More than 270 teenagers grouped into five-person teams from 45 U.S. states and nine Canadian provinces competed in North America’s largest competition of its kind. The students were housed and had their oral presentations at California State University-Fresno, and completed their field testing at Reedley College. At stake was a share of $125,000 in college scholarships and prizes.

Glen Lake High School had qualified for this North American competition by finishing first at the Michigan Envirothon State Competition in May. For winning the Michigan Envirothon each student from the Glen Lake team, known as “All Natural Baby”, received a medal and a $2,500 scholarship to Michigan State University. Students on the Glen Lake High School team are: Heather Leach, Chloe Gribbin, Jack Kerby-Miller, Collin Richard and Marriah Sobczak. The team was coached by science teacher Karen Richard and was also accompanied to California by Glen Lake’s assistant principal/athletic director, Mark Mattson.

During this weeklong international competition, each team’s environmental knowledge is tested under the supervision of natural resource professionals such as wildlife specialists and soil scientist, and a panel of judges evaluates their teamwork, problem solving and presentation skills. The Canon Envirothon is the culmination of a series of education competitions that annually involves some 500,000 high school students from throughout North America.

An Envirothon team is comprised of five students and their advisor. The team studies from a curriculum of agriculture, aquatic ecology, energy, forestry, soils/geology, wildlife, and a different current issue topic each year. The topic of this year’s competition was “Protection of Groundwater Through Urban, Agricultural and Environmental Planning.”

More information is available on the Web for the Michigan Envirothon program at MichiganEnvirothon.Com

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