Staff Writer
Students in the Caribou Alternative High School class of Bill Gehring’s recently placed third in the Northern Regional Envirothon, held in Littleton and will be participating in the state competition at Unity College May 29. The state’s winning team will then be eligible to compete in the International Envirothon at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, July 28. The envirothon is an academic competitive program with teachers throughout Maine incorporating the envirothon concepts with hands on activities into the science curriculum. The program combines math, language arts, cultural land-use history and science and students must build critical thinking and decision-making skills as they work together practicing true environmental stewardship.
This program, sponsored by the Maine Association of Conservation Districts Education and Envirothon Committee, offers two $200 scholarships to Maine participants from the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture at the University of Maine, Orono. Winners of the national competition receive individual scholarships valued at over $1,000. Canon is also a sponsor of the event.
Gehring said his students competed against students who are in regular high school classes, and noted that he had been informed that “Caribou kids were cited as having the best oral and poster presentations. The Caribou kids were also noted as the group who worked the best as a team.”
A judged competition, teams must deal with a current environmental issue, also soils, forestry, wildlife, and aquatics. Gehring said, “ These five students really got into this program. Overall this is the sixth year students from the Caribou Alternative High School have competed in the Envirothon and the third year they have represented the facility at the state level of competition.”
The event is aligned with the Maine’s Learning Results program, which outlines the guiding principles of Maine’s education standards.
Erica Raymond also serves as a team adviser along with Gehring.
