225 students, forming 45 teams from 13 elementary schools, competed among each other Monday (May 5, 2014) during the 2014 Carbon County Envirothon at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center (CCEEC) in Summit Hill.
The 4-day Envirothon includes teams from many schools in Carbon and Eastern Schuylkill Counties.
Placing first on Monday was team “The Killer Bees” from Weatherly.
Monday marked the first of four days in which students from different ages and grades compete. Competing each day are 2 and 3 graders (Snoops Division) of Monday, 4th and 5th graders (Explorers) on Tuesday, 6th to 8th graders (Investigators) on Wednesday, and 9th to 12th graders (Scientists) on Thursday.
All teams will compete in a variety of categories; to include forestry, wildlife, soil, aquatics and current events.
School’s that competed Monday included Tamaqua Elementary, Weatherly Elementary, Towamensing Elementary, West Penn Elementary, East Penn Elementary, Franklin Elementary, Shull-David Elementary, Mahoning Elementary, SS. Peter & Paul, Penn-Kidder Campus, L.B. Morris Elementary, Panther Valley Elementary and S.S. Palmer Elementary.
Franklin Klock, naturalist at the center, said the center is one of a few in the state that work to get all grades involved, rather than focusing only on the high schools. Klock added that the kids really take this competition seriously.
Coordinating the Carbon County Envirothon is Jeannie Carl, who serves as a Naturalist of the center.
Susan Gallagher, Chief Naturalist of CCEEC, said the Envirothon is sponsored each year by Lions Clubs International, Region II, District 14-U.

Below is more information about the Envirothon from the center’s website:
This annual competition is about challenging our youth to learn and understand more about all facets of their world: soil, water, wildlife and forestry. Successful competitors are those who engage in teamwork with a winning attitude.”
The Envirothon is also about having fun and coming together to share ideas. Students gain many of the tools needed to become effective future decision makers, as they learn to respect different opinions and values about the environment. A network of professionals from several environmental agencies join us for the day and explain how they tackle real life challenges to change our world for the best.
County-level Envirothons are held each year throughout Pennsylvania. Winning high-school teams at this level go on to compete at a state-sponsored event, where winners advance to the International Envirothon, with a chance to win thousands in college scholarships.

The goals of this program are:
• To teach students about how our actions affect our environment
• To encourage involvement by each student within their local community
• To encourage students’ environmental sensitivity and awareness
• To help students develop an understanding of ecological systems and the connectedness these
systems share.
• To help students develop skills needed to become part of the solution to local and global environmental problems.

The center’s Envirothon webpage is http://www.carboneec.org/envirothon.html.