Chapel Hill, NC – On April 27-28, the Woods Envirothoners attended the NC Envirothon State Finals at Cedarock Park in Alamance County. Over 100 middle and high school teams competed for top honors in Aquatic Ecology, Current Environmental Issues (CEI), Forestry, Soil Science, and Wildlife Ecology as well as demonstrating their skills in solving environmental issues.
Friday was spent in sunshine and warm temperatures making for a great day to be outside. Many of the Woods Charter School students camped Friday night at Cedarock Park where they continued to study and prepare for the testing on Saturday. The campers also were privileged to listen to Mia Kalish’s Little Tennessee River Basin Rap several times during the evening.
The Woods Charter High School teams did well with having an additional hoop to jump through on Friday by presenting a conservation plan to a panel of judges as well as taking the five tests on Saturday. The teams, after preparing all year to present an environmentally sound plan for livestock grazing, were thrown a curve ball. Instead of grazing they had to present a plan for dealing with Urban Flooding. They were up to the challenge with the Jolly Llamas (Ashley Allushuski, Caroline Blythe, Beth Furry, Grace Hegland, and Cordelia Hume) scoring a second place in the Oral presentation portion of the Competition. This score, along with 2nd in Aquatics and Wildlife and 3rd in Forestry, Soils, and Current Environmental Issues propelled the Jolly Llamas to an overall 3rd Place in the State a mere 13 points (out of 600 possible) behind the first place team. They did have to present their oral presentation again in front of the assembled teams and they rocked. The other Woods Charter High School Team, The Head Birches (Patrick Deegan, Daniel Falkovic, Sarah Falkovic, Maggie Johnston, and Olivia Osborne) with 4th in Soils and 5th in CEI ending with a 10th place score a highly completive field.
The Woods Charter Middle School Teams also scored well. The Unleafable Nerds (Mac Czyzewski, Mia Kalish, Lu McGurk, Matthew Peeler, and Wiley Sikes) came in 4th overall with 2nd in Soils, 3rd in Forestry and 4th in CEI. They missed 3rd place by only 1 point. Our other Middle School Teams came in 13th (The Penta Chickens – Samuel Dummer, Ethan Galiger, Nicholas Vallanat, and Evan Osborne) and 16th (The Sappling Ultisoles – Cate Czyzewski, Quinn Dodd, William Osborne, and Jesse Sikes) which is excellent since half of the team members had not been to Envirothon previously.
The Woods Envirothon teams continue to be a force within the region and state. They represent how studying pays off. Since Envirothon is truly a team effort and the teams are deep, Woods Charter should be able to continue to be a force for years to come.