Earthly environmentalists take home second place

The Envirothon Team recently competed at their annual competition and placed second overall against many other schools from the county.

    The group members have been preparing for this competition for the entire school year, as they have met every friday since the very first friday of the school year in September. The club, run by Mrs. Laura O’leary, spends time both inside and outside studying the environment, ecosystems, and wildlife. They often walk around campus and identify different plants and animals, and then test their knowledge with Kahoots and other creative ways to be sure they are learning the information they need to know.

    “So the envirothon competition was broken up into 5 categories – soil, aquatics, wildlife, forestry, and then a fifth topic,” explained Jake Huneke, a member of the A team. This year, the fifth topic was Agriculture and the Environment: Knowledge and Technology to Feed the World. The fifth topic is always related to a current environmental issue and is picked in order for students to realize the complexity of making real-life environmental decisions.

    In addition to Huneke, North Harford’s A team this year consisted of Will Eakes, Brennan Stewart, Becca Morris, and Erin O’Leary.

    Because there are five categories and five people on the team, each person focuses on one specific category in order to prepare for the exams. Stewart was in charge of the soil part of the test. “I did the soils part, and I had to measure the slope of the land and figure out the type of soil,” he explained. “My group helped me out a lot but I took charge.” He pointed out that though they did well, there’s always room for improvement.

    The team this year took home second place to Harford Christian, who they have been neck-and-neck with in the competition for the past couple of years. North Harford beat out Fallston High School, though, who placed third.

    Because they will not be advancing to the state competition this year, the team is done for the time being. However, the club will surely be starting up again the first week of the school year for the 2019-2020 season.

    Stewart definitely encourages any student to come out and join the team next season. “We’re losing Will who’s a really good senior so there’s a lot of room for people to step up, there’s three teams you can be on so it’s not super competitive and it’s also a lot of fun and it’s only every Friday.”