Blair dominates Envirothon competition

Blair dominated the Montgomery County Envirothon competition snagging the first eight places.

According to Magnet coordinator Eileen Steinkraus ,"Blair teams were extremely successful." Blair sent ten teams to the competition with nine teams placing in the top ten.

The Envirothon is an annual competition that tests students' knowledge about various aspects of the environment. The competition is divided into five categories. These include forestry, soils, aquatics, wildlife and a fifth topic that changes from year-to-year. This year, the fifth topic was agriculture and land management.

Juniors Rebecca Pass, Easha Anand, Daozhong Jin, Emily Tsui and Paula Wang were awarded first place and 100 dollars each. Their team, the "Burly Gorillas," will be competing in the Maryland Envirothon Competition.

The members of the second place team, the "Shocked Cows," each received a 50-dollar gift card to Borders and those on the third place team, "Dead Last," each received a 25-dollar gift card.

To prepare for the competition, participants attended a seminar and were taught about different aspects of the environment. They were also trained to use equipment that would be neccessary in completing tasks such as tree identification and soil analysis.

According to sophomore Lauren Smith, whose team placed fourth, the competition is appealing to students because of its hands-on nature. For example, during the soils test, students work in soil pits.

Junior Annie Cohen participated in the Envirothon competition because she believes it helps educate students about "topics that you don't usually learn in school."