The students who attended the competition were part of a natural resource technology class administered through the Homer Division of Soil and Water Conservation.
Throughout the school year the class learns about soil and land use, forestry, aquatic ecology, wildlife and natural resources.
Envirothon is the largest high school environmental education competition in North America and tests students on their natural resources knowledge.
The team from Homer took first at the state envirothon competition this spring at Chena Hot Springs, where they competed against eight other teams. That win earned them the trip to Winnipeg.
Each state and province is allowed to send a team of five people to the competition. The Homer team finished tenth out of 52 teams. It placed third in the oral presentations portion of the competition, with a puppet show that gave solutions and instructions for dealing with the changing watershed of Lake Winnipeg, but placed tenth when overall scores were computed.
Katie Connor said the competition was fun, even the tests, but “really tough.”
For the group presentation the team had eight hours to create the 20-minute presentation and half an hour to practice beforehand, Connor said.
The group also had to be prepared for 10 to 15 minutes of questions from the judges.
At the awards banquet, when Alaska was called as the tenth place, Connor said the Homer students thought they were calling Alabama because they didn’t think they could have placed that high.
Connor will be a junior this year and is home schooled. She said the class is recruiting freshmen and sophomores to be on the team this year.
“We want to make sure people know it’s not a blow-off class,” she said.
Some students might want to take the class not just to earn vocational credit, but also for the many field trips including spending time at the Demonstration Forest, in a snow cave, working at a hatchery and canoeing.
“They’re really into this stuff,” said Al Poindexter, executive director of the Alaska Association of Conservation Districts and teacher of the class. “It just blows me away.”
“They get a pretty heavy load of academic study,” he said, adding that the practical experience with natural resources helps prepare students for situations in the real world.
The class may be taken up to two years, and Poindexter said that he utilizes at least 15 professionals from the natural resources field to teach the class.
“I call this a village classroom,” he said. “It really is a Homer community class. It belongs to the community.”
Students completing the class may receive vocational or science credit. It is offered off-campus, and is open to home school and public school students.
The class, now it its sixth year, has room for up to 18 students and will take place in either the Kachemak Wholesale building or at the Pratt Museum.
Students interested in the class can sign up for it within the next two weeks at the Homer High School counselor’s office, Poindexter said.
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