LOWER NAZARETH TWP., Pa. — A team of students from Bangor Area High School has advanced to the state Envirothon competition after placing first in Northampton County’s contest.
- Bangor Area High School's Envirothon team placed first in the Northampton County competition
- It's the eighth consecutive year the school has won the county competition
- The team will compete at the state competition in May
The school’s Team Maroon, made up of Abigail Duyssen, Logan Rusche, Matt Vidal, Blythe Kratzer and Annabelle Gormont will compete May 24 at Camp Mt. Luther in Mifflinburg, Union County.
It’s the eighth consecutive year a Bangor team won the Northampton County Conservation District’s annual Envirothon competition, held April 20 at Louise Moore Park.
Seven schools competed with twelve teams, rotating through five stations and taking written tests with some hands-on tasks.
Officials said the competition is an important tool to get students engaged in solving environmental issues.
Last year, the school’s team finished third in the state, said Joshua Thomas, a Bangor biology and environmental science teacher who also is the school’s Envirothon advisor.
“We hope to meet or exceed that expectation this year,” he said.
'Many environmental challenges ahead'
During this year’s competition, “Adapting to a Changing Climate,” students were tested in five areas: wildlife, forestry, soils and land use, aquatic ecology and a current environmental issue.
Essentially a scholastic scrimmage for environmental science, “it’s important from the perspective of students needing to be educated, responsible members of society,” Thomas said.
“We have many environmental challenges ahead and it will likely be their generation that will be tasked to fixing these issues.
Competitions like this one allow students to both educate themselves on some of these issues and also network with professionals currently in the fields of wildlife, aquatics, forestry and soils and land use.Joshua Thomas, a biology and environmental science teacher at Bangor who also serves as the school’s Envirothon advisor
“Competitions like this one allow students to both educate themselves on some of these issues and also network with professionals currently in the fields of wildlife, aquatics, forestry, and soils and land use.”
Three seniors on the Maroon Team will graduate this year, he said. Two of them are planning to study science in college.
Bangor’s Team White placed second and Saucon Valley High School placed third. Other high schools that sent teams included: Freedom, Nazareth, Northampton, Pen Argyl and Moravian Academy.
