About

What is the Envirothon?

The Indiana Envirothon promotes environmental education to high school aged students. The goal is to raise awareness of the importance of achieving and maintaining a natural balance between the quality of life and of the environment.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

In-class curriculum is combined with hands-on field experiences to demonstrate the role people have in important environmental issues. Envirothon is an exciting, fun way for high school students to learn about the environment and the issues facing current and future generations.

Envirothon builds awareness. It helps show tomorrow’s leaders the positive and negative effects individual actions have on the environment. Youth who take part understand differences between renewable and nonrenewable resources, understand environmental interactions and interdependencies, and know who provides information that can be used in the future for their benefit.

Students have fun while becoming environmentally aware during the competition!

Teams of five students (grades 9-12), representing a school or organization, compete at Indiana Envirothon contests by answering questions and by studying resource problems in each of the five environmental areas which include: soils/land use, aquatic ecology, wildlife, forestry, and a current environmental issue.

Students begin training for Envirothon by studying the resource materials that cover each natural resource area and those objectives related to them. Natural resource professionals provide presentations to the students sharing job experiences and information on the resource areas.

Student teams will participate at one of our regional contests, where they will engage in hands-on/minds-on learning, have an opportunity to hear more from natural resource professionals, and test their knowledge in the five resource areas. The top two placing teams from each regional contest will be invited to compete at the Indiana State competition. They will prepare an oral presentation covering their solution to the current environmental issue in advance to be presented at the state competition. The state competition combines the scores of both the written and oral components to determine the state winners.

The top team from the Indiana State Envirothon Competition will represent Indiana in the National Conservation Foundation (NCF) Envirothon Contest. The NCF-Envirothon is a multi-day event. Typically, over 50 participating teams from the U.S., Canada, and China merge the knowledge from their home state/provincial contests with hands-on teaching stations during a six day competition. Written tests and oral presentations are again part of the contest.

Six students gather around a water quality experiment. They each have a black bowl in their hands filled with water scooped from a half barrel.

Conference room filled with students seated around round tables. Students are turned forward to watch a speaker.

Five students are seated around a table focusing intently on a paper test.

The 2025 Indiana Envirothon Booklet will be posted soon.

Visit each of the following topics to access the Reference Material & Learning Objectives:

Decorative Element: Watercolor Style Banner Depicting Soil, a River, Beavers, Trees, and an Old-fashioned Windmill

Soil & Land Use

Aquatic Ecology

Wildlife

Forestry

Current Issue

2024 Current Issue: Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Future

Indiana Envirothon

The Envirothon is a competitive learning event for high school-aged students, testing their knowledge of environmental resources including soil, water, forestry, wildlife and various current environmental issues.

COVID-19 Update

The 2025 Indiana Envirothon regional and state competitions are scheduled to take place in person; however, this may be updated as county and/or state guidance changes. Please check this page and our Facebook frequently for updates.

Links

National Competition
Rules and Regulations
Regional Contacts

Photo from BLM Alaska