Tuesday, April 25, marked the 40th year of Pennsylvania Envirothon, an environmental-based academic competition. Haven has been sending teams for over fifteen years. Tuesday was the second year in a row that students from the high school have traveled to Ridley Creek State Park to compete, after missing two years due to COVID. 

Senior Envirothon leaders Nicholas Cardi and Caitlin McManus and adviser Ms. Kathy Freeman organized the club members into three teams, with thirteen students competing total. There are five topics tested, and each team member devotes themselves to a different topic. This year the topics were wildlife, aquatics, forestry, soils, and climate change.

Stations were set up throughout the area for each topic, and the paper tests are proctored by local park rangers, fish experts, game wardens and other such knowledgeable outdoor experts. Students had twenty minutes at each station to complete the tests, which consisted of animal identification prompts, questions on given soil texture charts, and what countries will be most affected by rising sea levels. 

The low-intensity competition draws schools from all over Delco, although since COVID, its participant numbers have been low. This year the Strath Haven teams were joined by a Sun Valley team and two Penncrest teams. 

For the 28th year in a row, one of Penncrest’s teams, Penncrest Gold, came in first with a score of 479/500 (each topic is scored out of 100), closely followed by Penncrest Red. 

Haven’s A team, this year called “The Big Green Cats” was comprised of Cardi, senior Imogen Sharif, junior CJ Chen and sophomore Jaden Hunter. They were awarded bronze for third place with a final score of 342. 

The other two Strath Haven teams, “Got Dirt?” and “The Plant-hers” ended up with 313 and 309 points respectively.