Students from Norwin High School took first place in this year’s Westmoreland County Envirothon, which for the first time in 35 years, was held virtually.

Members of the winning Westmoreland County team who will have a chance to win those state-level prizes are: Lily Jarosz, Nicholas Markovina, Raveena Navalgund, Emilie Horton, and Gabriella Conley.  Joyce Muchoney serves as the team’s advisor.

Southmoreland High School Team 1 took second place, and Southmoreland Team 2 took third.

Although none of this year’s participants could physically measure a tree or examine the teeth of a bobcat skull as they might have done in past years when the Envirothon was held at a county park, they did face the same kind of challenging natural resource questions on-line, presented as interactive videos and audio clips, as well as in written format.

Students from each of the five participating Westmoreland County high schools used meeting platforms such as Google Classroom and Zoom to work together on April 23, to answer the challenges presented in the areas of forestry, aquatic ecology, soils and land use, wildlife, and this year’s current issue: water resource management; local control and local solutions. 

Winners were announced on Monday.

In all, 40 students from five Westmoreland County high schools participated in this year’s event, numbers that were down from the norm of 100 student participants from nine area schools.

The Norwin High School team will now go on to compete in the Pennsylvania Envirothon, which also will be held virtually, over a period of days in May.  At the state Envirothon, teams compete for scholarships and prizes. 

The Westmoreland Conservation District coordinates the annual Westmoreland County Envirothon.  Sponsors for this year’s event are:  the Pennsylvania Envirothon, Inc.; Apex Energy, LLC; and Smithfield.

(Photo: Westmoreland County Envirothon team winners, Norwin High School, represented by (left to right) Lily Jarosz, Nicholas Markovina, Raveena Navalgund, Emilie Horton, and Gabriella Conley.)

Related Article:

-- Carmichaels H.S. Envirothon Team Partners With Izaak Walton League To Plant Trees For Earth Day; Wins Greene County Envirothon

-- Honesdale H.S. Team Wins Pike/Wayne County Envirothon, Represents Wayne County; Wallenpaupack H.S. Team Wins To Represent Pike County At State Envirothon 

-- Girl Scouts Kick-Off 5 Million Trees Campaign, Fun Patch Unveiled At Tree Planting In Dauphin County

[Posted: April 27, 2021]

5/3/2021