About the Texas Envirothon

What is Envirothon?

Envirothon is North America's largest and most academically challenging high school environmental competition. The goal of Envirothon is to enhance students' environmental literacy and enable them to make informed decisions regarding the environment.

Envirothon is a TEAM competition. Through several months of study, teams of five students prepare themselves for testing in wildlife biology, forestry, aquatics, soil science, and a current environmental issue. At Envirothon, teams must work together to answer knowledge-based questions in outdoor field-testing stations and also apply that knowledge to solve real-life problems.

The Envirothon uses a team approach to learning. Teachers attend training workshops and assist their students with mastering the Envirothon goals. Students begin study sessions in the fall of the school year, with the top team continuing preparation through the summer for the national competition. The teams study with natural resource professionals and educators to learn about the five areas of study. The students are also provided with reference materials to enhance their knowledge about the Envirothon program's key concepts.

State and National Competition

The Texas Envirothon is held over three days in March or April of each year.

At the state competition, students will:

• Participate in seminars led by natural resource professionals
• Create solutions to real-life problems and present them to a panel of experts
• Compete at outdoor field-testing stations in the areas of wildlife biology, forestry, aquatics, soil science, and a current environmental issue

The Environmental Institute of Houston will cover the registration fees for the winning Texas Envirothon team to compete at the national NCF-Envirothon. In addition, the Environmental Institute of Houston will subsidize up to $4,000 of the costs associated with transportation to the national event. The NCF-Envirothon's five-day competition is held in the summer in a different North American location each year.

Commitment to Education

All Texas Envirothon objectives and materials are TEKS correlated. The key points highlighted within each area of study will provide you with a good idea about what you need to know to compete at the Texas Envirothon. Advisors may use them as a guide to design effective curricula, educational resources, and testing scenarios. The study guide is available online and covers all testable material in the five subject areas.

Envirothon teacher training workshops are held each year. Recordings of previous workshops are available on the Texas Envirothon YouTube channel.

Volunteers

The Texas Envirothon is powered by volunteers. Each year, more than 50 individuals donate over 500 hours of their time to help make the event a success. Volunteers assist with the preparation of the site, teacher training, and the three-day competition. Volunteers represent local non-profits, state and federal agency personnel, local school districts, universities, and businesses. Volunteers help train the teachers on environmental issues, forestry, soils, aquatics, and wildlife. Other volunteers participate as guest speakers, judges, scorekeepers, team buddies, team leaders, and test writers. As the program grows, the number of volunteers and the hours dedicated to the program also grows.

History of the Texas Envirothon

The Envirothon program originated in Pennsylvania in the spring of 1979. Since 1979, the Envirothon has continued a steady growth. The first national competition was held in 1988 with three teams. Currently, over 50 teams attend the NCF-Envirothon representing the states and Canadian provinces.

In Texas, the first state competition was conducted in April 2001 at Stephen F. Austin State University where twelve teams participated. Teams represented schools from West Texas to East Texas to the Coast. Since then, more than 50 schools have participated in the state competition, including the towns of Lubbock, Hallsville, Nacogdoches, Magnolia, Mt. Pleasant, Houston, Ft. Worth, Conroe, The Woodlands, Rio Hondo, San Antonio, and Paris. The program is headquartered at the UHCL Environmental Institute of Houston.