JohnCarrollHigh School students win State Envirothon Competition and have earned the honor of competing in the Prestigious National Envirothon Competition!
Saturday, April 14 th, John Carroll High School competed in the 2007 Florida State Envirothon Competition in Jonathan Dickinson State Park. The John Carroll High School team took 1 st place overall in the State Competition and will represent Florida in the Cannon North American Envirothon Competition this summer! This competition will have representatives from most states and five Canadian Provinces.
The Envirothon Competition is a national competition, which also includes Canada, that concentrates on the areas of the environment and nature. The five-person student teams talk to experts, perform research, and study data to prepare for the competitions. The John Carroll High School student team has spent approximately 100 hours preparing for the competitions. Each team is given an environmental topic and must answer oral questions, written questions, and give presentations on a chosen "Current Issue" environmental question.
This year's "Current Issue" is "Alternative and Renewable Energy." To prepare, the students researched various forms of alternative energy production and talked to experts in the energy field. These experts included employees at Florida Power and Light, Florida Solar Energy Center, and the Plasma Gasification Plant in St. Lucie County. The students determined that for the state of Florida, while they cannot completely eliminate traditional power production sources at this point, solar energy is the most viable energy source for the state of Florida.
The John Carroll High School team of Kyle Collins (Junior), Susie Irizarry (Senior), Danny Irizarry (Sophomore), Amber Enns (Senior), and Eric Zaluzec (Junior) represented St. Lucie County in the competition. They competed against 21 other teams from Florida. The students will now travel to Lake Seneca, New York, from July 29 th to August 5 th to represent Florida and compete against 52 teams from the United States and Canada.
We wish the John Carroll High School students luck in their competition. The students look forward to their trip this summer and have high goals for the National competition. Junior Kyle Collins remarked, "This year our goal is to break the top ten! Last year we placed 13 th in the National Competition, and we would like to improve upon that level this year."