UPDATE:
Saturday, July 31st, 2004
Team from Ontario comes 7th overall out of 52 North American teams
The weeklong Envirothon 2004 wrapped up with a team of
high-school students from Miami, Florida taking the top overall
spot. Among the eight Canadian teams participating, the team from
West Hill Secondary School in Owen Sound, Ontario came 7th overall
(the best performance to date by a Canadian team). The Ontario
team was also the proud recipient of the Envirothon Extra Mile
Award, awarded to the team demonstrating the most spirit, cooperation,
leadership, and friendship during the Canon Envirothon. Congratulations
to Owen Sound and all participating teams!
Wednesday, July 28th, 2004 - Buckhannon, West Virginia
Canada has fine representation at Canon’s Envirothon in
West Virginia, in an environmental quiz competition being held
this week where a team of five high school students from their
respective school get to seek out answers in the wilds of the
Appalachians instead of scratching their heads at an exam table
in a dark room. Teams from Ontario, British Columbia, Newfoundland,
Nova Scotia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and PEI are not lost amongst
the 44 other teams from the US. As a matter of fact, the Owen
Sound team have a war cry and capes to intimidate anyone who cross
their paths. They have a signature O they hold up over their heads,
yelling ONTARIO every time a scientist calls out to check the
various teams on site. I’ve heard it, and it is, if anything,
pretty cool.
Meanwhile,
the New Brunswick team are feeling the effects of being the only
French speaking team on board. Ted Voisine, 18 from Citee des
Jeunes A.M. Sourmany says, “Tell them back home we are the
only French team here, today.” Add to that the stress of
having to perform Land, Soil, Forestry, Aquatics, and Wildlife--each
in increments of half an hour, throughout the day. This means
tight discipline with team work and patient co-operation when
the going gets tough. I look at some of the Land/Soil questions
and the only word I can truly understand is, ‘macroinvertebrate’
and the only reason I understand the word is because I separate
macro and invertebrate in my head. And even that is not good enough.
Wayne Doyle, from Canon Canada explains, “Some of these
were run by biology experts and they fear even they wouldn’t
be able to answer some of these questions.” Tough does not
even begin to define what these students are faced with, but then
these are the best of the rest. Picked from earlier environmental
quiz competitions held in each state and province, West Virginia
currently houses some of the best minds in all of North America.
Like the New Brunswick team pointed out-they beat every high school
in New Brunswick to be here today. I ask them if their questions
are tough, Ted shrugs, “Yeah,” and goes back to answering
questions with Vicky Caron, 17. Tough maybe, but they know what
they’re doing and they’re here to crack the code and
win big.
But giving up a week of your summer vacation time to go trudging
through breathtaking nature is hardly something you’ll see
these students complaining about. And at the end of the day, after
the tests are handed in, they play Frisbee; eat ice cream and
watch movies in a giant open-air screen, sitting on the lawns
of Wesleyan College. It’s like summer camp, with total scholarship
money worth US$35,000 to be won at the end of the week. And that’s
a sweet summer week to look ahead to.
----Surya
SEEN
AND OVERHEARD
Owen Sound team members hit the books...
"hey, I've lost my Xena Warrior Princess
bookmarker"
A team tests the soil...
"mmm, yeah, Lori it does taste a
bit peaty, well fertilized though"
The entrance to one of the competition areas...
"Larry, we've already lost 9 entire
teams in the quicksand,
what are we going tell their parents?"
The French speaking New Brunswick team makes grande plans...
"mais tous les regles sont en anglais,
en plus, en anglais americain"
The wildlife testing component...
"hmm, this one claims to be Davy
Crockett's hat"
Two members of the Owen Sound team from Ontario in the
woods...
"when I stare at this pencil
for a long time I start to feel really, really, sleepy..."
more to come...
;-)
