Competitions and Workshops

The Envirothon Program is sponsored by the NC Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts. The Envirothon Competition is an annual environmental competition for middle and high school students. Students compete in teams of 5 to test their knowledge of the natural environment. The students rotate between the following five resource stations (Aquatic ecology, Current Environmental Issues, Forestry, Soils/land use, and Wildlife) where they will be given a written test. Questions are answered as a team.

The program is open to students in grades 9-12 for high and in grades 5-8 for middle school. Teams consist of five members. Each team must have an adult advisor and the team may have alternates. It is important for high school teams to have at least two alternates if you feel that your team may have a chance to win first place at the state competition. The North American Envirothon will allow two substitutes to the original team. Public schools, private schools, home school group, school clubs, FFA groups, etc. are all eligible to participate in the Envirothon Program.

Once a team has pre-registered for the Area Envirothon, information will be sent by the sponsoring District (Mecklenburg Soil and Water Conservation District) to each advisor listing the source of materials that will be needed for study. The official team study resources and event information can be found on North Carolina's Envirothon website. Questions will be developed from resource materials or from information supplied during the events' station trainings.

The Envirothon begins at the start of the new school year. There are eight Area Envirothons in the spring. A team must qualify at an Area Envirothon to advance to the State Envirothon. The 1st Place high school team will advance to the North American Envirothon. For more details please visit www.envirothon.org.

The dates for the 2025 Area 8 Southern Piedmont Envirothon (SPE) which includes Mecklenburg County will be April 1. 2025 (middle school) and April 2, 2024 (high school). The event will be held at Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury, NC.

The dates for the 2025 North Carolina State Envirothon will be May 2-3, 2025. The event will be held in-person at Cedarock Park in Alamance County. No plans are being made for a virtual event.

The Envirothon School for Advisors and Teachers is an opportunity to participate in specialized training for Envirothon team advisors and teachers while also earning credit toward teacher CEUs or the NC Environmental Education Certification. More information will be made available closer to the event date.

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services provides resources intended as supplemental material for team advisors to use as they train for the Envirothon.

The Envirothon Program is sponsored by the NC Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts. The Resource Conservation Workshop is a weeklong intensive study and hands-on conservation workshop requiring student application and participation a wide range of conservation topics. Students are housed in NCSU campus dormitories under the guidance of line-in counselors. In order to achieve success, students should come prepared to apply themselves to meet the primary objective of this workshop -- learning about natural resources and their management in today's environment. Awards and scholarships are won and presented to students under several awards programs

Students in Mecklenburg County who have demonstrated an interest in natural resource conservation are eligible. High School Graduates are not eligible to attend. Priority should be given to rising juniors and rising seniors. Students may participate only one time in this workshop.