In 1979, after growing concerns about resource depletion, pollution and lack of environmental awareness, the Pennsylvania Soil and Water Conservation Districts looked to encourage high school student involvement in environmental education. The result was the creation of Envirothon, a local competition sponsored under the name of the Environmental Olympics; the program quickly gained extensive visibility and expanded into a nationwide competition. Today, through a combined extracurricular club between Parkway West and Parkway South, students continue to be involved in first-hand experiences with climate conservation and natural resource studies through the Envirothon team. 

Previously, Parkway South AP Environmental Science teacher Russell Barton coached Parkway Envirothon teams for several years, taking groups of students towards the international competitive level, before deciding to bring Envirothon to West High. Composed of five students from both schools, the current Parkway Envirothon team focuses on expanding their knowledge of environmental topics under Barton’s guidance and academic expertise. 

“I joined because I started talking with Mr. Barton, who was recruiting people. He was very knowledgeable about what he was talking about, the sights he was setting and his plan to get there. I [also] took AP Environmental Science this year, and I like [Envirothon] even more [because of it],” Envirothon member and sophomore Alisha Yin said. 

The root of Envirothon’s intent derives from a goal to better understand environmental issues. Focusing on common categories of study, including soils, aquatics, forestry and wildlife, within a framework of current events issues, the students tackle research and hands-on approaches to building reasoning based on environmental and scientific thought. Specifically, the club participates in environmental training, visits the Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium and conducts controlled burns to develop real-world connections to climate conservation.

“Envirothon is a lot about drawing connections. [I’ve learned that] every single thing that we do as humans — literally any action — is connected to some other aspect in the environment. I think it’s important to build those connections in how we interact with our world,” Yin said.  

While Envirothon remains grounded in developing environmental awareness, a significant part of the club’s involvement deals with competitions, which are split between a written test portion and a presentation portion. Typically, they include an annually chosen foundational current issue around which the team’s research and presentation are based. This year, the team tackled the presented current issue of forestry, putting in months of preparation before the competition. 

“We went to districts on April 3 and took home second place by one point,” Envirothon member and sophomore Malia McLellan said. “We’ve been studying weekly since November. On the days leading up to regionals, we prepared by working a lot on our oral presentation and got first place in the section. We also got first in wildlife. After not making it to state our freshman year, we were excited.” 

After qualifying for state, the team collaborated to refine their knowledge in each of Envirothon’s categories. On May 1, Parkway Envirothon earned the award for second place in the state.  

“The biggest takeaway I’ve learned from Envirothon is that if something is easy the first time, it’s not always worth having,” McLellan said. “Last year, our team placed sixth in the St. Louis area, and this year we got second at state. Only the state champion goes to internationals, so we were a little disappointed; [but] it’s good to look back and see how much our team has improved since last year, and not taking first place this year makes us want to work that much harder.”

Despite not being able to advance to the international level, the club members found greater value in the growth achieved through preparing for the competition. 

“[Envirothon] is a great environment to learn and grow in, [and] is very growth-focused. Whether you win or lose a competition, you’ll always learn something new, and test-writers are more than happy to help explain questions to you after the competition,” McLellan said. 

Most of all, through the ups and downs of navigating competition preparation and results, Parkway Envirothon creates connections between members through shared interests in environmental conservation. In the future, the club intends to build on its connection and collaboration to continually improve as a team and expand its impact on climate conservation in the community. 

“[It is valuable] to have our group of students become more interested in these very pressing current issues that our planet is facing. Envirothon is the community where people can learn about these issues, and meet a lot of great new people doing it,” Yin said.