On March 8, 2014, the envirothon academic team competed against six other teams and took third place for the third year consecutively.

There are two separate parts to the competition: presentation and test. In March, the team competed in the presentation category which is based off a fifth topic that changes every year. This year the topic was sustainable agriculture.

“We work really well together because we have been together for several years,” said senior Katie Soltysiak.

To prepare for this competition, the team has been staying after school on either Wednesdays or Fridays for a few hours every week since the beginning of the school year. They have tried to meet after sports so everyone who is interested in joining the team has an opportunity to participate. Due to circumstances beyond their control, they only had a week truly to prepare for the competition after they received the information determining what the fifth topic was.

“Despite having little time to prepare for the presentation, we were able to prepare well and we will do even more for the next competition,” said senior Sarah Fielder.

The group presented their project to a panel of judges and was adjudicated on how well they understood sustainable agriculture and how well they presented the information.

“It is really nerve-wracking to present in front of the judges, but it is a good experience and practice for public speaking,” said Soltysiak.

In their presentation, they described what would happen if they owned their own farm. They grew everything in a aquaponic operation. According to oxforddictionaries.com aquaponics is defined as a system of aquaculture in which the waste produced by farmed fish or other aquatic animals supplies nutrients for plants grown hydroponically, which in turn purify the water. The team raised fish, and they grew tomatoes, garlic and basil. They were able to create revenue with their garlic because it is very profitable.

“I think we really have an amazing team; they are very dedicated and you can tell that they want to be there,” said adviser Mrs. Laura O’Leary.

The envirothon team took a refresher course to prepare them for the test section of the competition on April 23. The teams could choose between two of the four remaining topics to go over in detail. The four topics they can choose from are soil, forestry, aquatics, or wildlife. The teams will then quiz each other and be able to ask experts for even more clarification.

“I think this is such a wonderful opportunity for people to become more focused on their topics,” said Fielder.

All of this preparation is leading up to the big competition coming up on May 16. The all-day test is split up into sections so that team members can work faster and more efficiently. The members are under a time constraint to finish the test for each topic before moving on to the next one. At the end of the day, the judges will announce the score results and the winners.

“We are just an awesome team and I cannot wait to compete,” said junior Patrick O’Leary.