Washington State Envirothon

Washington State Envirothon is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping conservation districts and partner groups conduct regional and state competitions, as well as supporting the NCF Envirothon, a North American competition.

Mission and Goals

The mission of the Washington State Envirothon is to provide resources for students and teachers, through education and teamwork, which promote environmental awareness, critical thinking, and active personal stewardship for the purpose of balancing the quality of life and the quality of the environment.

The Envirothon mission is accomplished by developing in young people an understanding of the principles and practices of natural resource management and ecology and the ability to deal with complex resource management decisions. The following goals should be used as a guide to develop effective curricula, educational resources, and testing scenarios.

Goal 1:

To promote a desire to learn more about the natural environment and equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to apply the basic principles and practices of resource management and ecology to complex environmental issues.

Goal 2:

To promote stewardship of natural resources and to encourage the development of the critical thinking, cooperative problem-solving, and decision-making skills required to achieve and maintain a natural balance between the quality of life and the quality of the environment.

Goal 3:

To provide students with experience in environmentally-oriented activities, enabling them to become environmentally-aware, action-oriented citizens.

History

In 1979, the Pennsylvania Soil and Water Conservation Districts created an “Environmental Olympics” competition as an approach aimed to encourage high school students to become interested in natural resource conservation and environmental issues. The Environmental Olympics, later shortened to Enviro-Olympics, quickly gained popularity as a hands-on, outdoor competition designed to challenge and test each student’s knowledge of soils/land use, aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife, and current environmental issues.

For nearly a decade, the Pennsylvania Enviro-Olympics program demonstrated its ability to promote environmental literacy and supplement education in grades 9-12. The program quickly grew in size to include participation by 40 conservation district teams at the 1987 Pennsylvania State Enviro-Olympics, providing greater visibility for the program and stimulating the interest of neighboring states.

In 1988 the program became known as the Envirothon. That year, teams from Ohio, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania competed at the first National Envirothon hosted and sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts.

In 1997 Canon U.S.A., Inc. began supporting the Envirothon and in 1999 changed its role to title sponsor.  The “North American” Envirothon continued its educational mission under the name, Canon Envirothon.

In 2013, with the loss as Canon as title sponsor, The National Conservation Foundation began restructuring the program and today it is known as the NCF Envirothon.

Today, most US States and Canadian Provinces participate in the Envirothon, reaching more than 500,000 students across North America each year. Thanks to dedicated volunteers, staff of cooperating agencies, teachers and advisors, enthusiastic students, and valuable support from sponsors, the Envirothon continues to prove itself as an exciting and useful tool for incorporating environmental education into the classroom. For more detailed information, go to www.envirothon.org.