How to start a Colorado Envirothon Team

Sponsorships from your local Conservation District may be possible. To locate your local district, please contact Carissa Whittington at carissa.whittington@state.co.us.

The registration fee is currently $100 per student, or $500 per team.

Includes the topics of the ecology of water, stream improvement, water quality, plants and animals living in or around water, pollution, wetlands, and conservation.

Includes tree identification, tree physiology (needs, parts, and growth requirements), forest ecology, sustainable forest management, understanding the importance of trees as an important renewable resource, insects, diseases, and forest measurements.

Includes physical properties of soil and soil formation, soil ecosystems, chemical properties of soil nutrients, soil conservation and land use management, and the use of paper and web soil surveys.

Includes identification of various Colorado wildlife species, general habits, and food habits, knowledge of wildlife ecology, the conservation and management of wildlife, and common issues and nuances related to wildlife and society. 

Covers any current or newsworthy environmental issue. 

Day 1 focuses on the oral presentation, where students are sequestered before lunch to prepare a presentation based on a solution for the current issue of that year.

Day 2 focuses on the written test stations based on the subject areas above (All written tests equal 100 points, but can vary on question amounts).

• Work on getting information out in your classes/school to gain student interest
• Late Fall/Winter is the perfect time for teams to start studying
• Updated Study Guides and Resources will be updated in December, prior to the announcement of the next competition.
• Regional Training events are a great way to get experience in Envirothon Subject Areas. Please check the website for upcoming training opportunities!

• Beginning of the school year:
  • Post flyers throughout school about joining a team
  • Have other teachers help promote Envirothon to their classes
  • Many team members are found in the first few weeks of class, specifically in science-based classes. 
  • Allow other team members to join throughout the year or even at the beginning of the next calendar year for your team.
• Note: This will take time! Start small and build up. Be patient and consistent when creating teams. More interest will come!

• It is helpful to hold an introductory meeting where you can help explain what Environthon is and what your intent is as an advisor. I would suggest holding the meeting around the beginning/middle of November, just to make sure you are ready to register teams when registration goes live in January. 
• Remember to establish expectations and the time commitment that is required.
• Complete information sheets that help describe their prior knowledge and subject interests. (Sample information sheets can be found on the Colorado Envirothon Website under “Advisor Resources” 
• Establish a regular meeting time that works best for all involved.

• Any new resources for each subject will be available around fall each year.
• Assigning Specialty Subjects: 
  • In theory, there are five subject areas and five team members. Each team could assign each member an area of focus and a secondary area of focus (just in case). Then, that way, the team will have two members with knowledge of one of the subjects that Envirothon covers, your “subject experts”. 
  • During study sessions, team members can share knowledge about their topics with the team. 
    • Alternatively, some members could focus on natural history and identification, while the rest of the team can focus on the resource management issues related to each section. 
  • This way of handling this competition is okay, however it is still worthwhile for team members to also study all of the studying materials, as that can help the team as a whole.
  • **Remember, no resources professional can know everything. Teamwork is essential in the real world. Learning how to work as a team is essential to your success!**
• Make sure all team members are familiar with basic ecological terms, current environmental issues, and develop an understanding of the connections between all of the subject areas and how the management of one resource may affect another. 
• Have team members look over each of the objectives for each of the subject areas. There, what to study first, as well as suggested activities are included. It is highly recommended to take a look through the objectives first before studying specific items rather than the topic as a whole. 
• An important skill for natural resource professionals is to know how to read maps and be familiar with the Web Soil Survey as well as reading paper Soil Survey maps. Information on how to do that is included in the Soils and Land Use Resources webpage. 
• The Colorado Envirothon website contains all of the study materials necessary for the competition. Topic Experts across the state provide more information as they can for the better understanding of each subject area. 
  • There are training kits available for the use across the state as well. Be sure to check out the main Advisors/Student Resource page for locations and contacts.  
• Advisors/Coaches: we highly recommend using resource materials to develop environmental units for your classrooms (See Colorado CTE standards in Natural Resources for more guidelines) 

• Most school Envirothon programs are after school. Do not expect students to attend every single meeting. Be flexible. Students have other life things, too!
• Students that are committed to the program will do well.
• Students can be placed into multiple teams based on several variables:
  • Their attendance
  • Their presentation scores
  • Their test scores
  • Completion of study times
• There will be a decent amount of communication between yourself and the team members. You will have to remind them of deadlines and upcoming meetings.
  • Some advisors keep record of attendance for the students, which can sometimes create a sense of responsibility amongst the team members when they miss meetings on a regular basis.
• You are welcome to make your expectations as you see fit. 

• It is recommended that you encourage your team to study at home. 30 minutes a week or more would be a good starting place.
  • It may be helpful to have the sutdents write a short synopsis of what they learned during their study time.

• As mentioned above, teams will be sequestered together as a team to create a 15 minute presentation based on the current issue of the event.
  • The presentation is an opportunity to address the real-world environmental/natural resource issue and share their ideas/plans for addressing the resource issue.
  • They will have time to look over the scenario, develop an action plan to address the issue, and then present to a panel of judges for scoring.
• Public speaking tips and tricks
  • Teams should practice once or twice before the official presentation to make sure all transitions are smooth between team members 
  • Make sure students have a loud, clear, and expressive voice. 
  • Try to not speak too quickly or have constant body movement throughout the presentation.
  • Try to not look at the screen the whole time, make eye contact with the audience. 
  • B R E A T H E! 
• See more information on the Colorado Envirothon Oral Presentation page.