Connecticut’s Conservation Districts are dedicated to educating youth and adults alike about the value of conserving our natural resources. The conservation districts work closely with many partners to promote conservation education in their local areas through a variety of programs such as the Connecticut Envirothon.

Connecticut Envirothon

The Connecticut Envirothon is a STEM compliant resource based education program started in 1992 by the state’s Soil and Water Conservation Districts. \This high school level program promotes environmental awareness, knowledge, and stewardship through education and team competition. Connecticut Envirothon also follows the mission and goals of the National Conservation Foundation’s (NCF) Envirothon, North America’s largest high school environmental education competition.

Throughout the year, Envirothon teams work with a teacher/advisor on curriculum materials in core study areas of Soils, Aquatics, Wildlife and Forestry and a Current Environmental Issue. 

Teams receive curriculum materials and are invited to a series of training workshops in the four core study areas. These workshops are presented by foresters, soil scientists, aquatic ecologists, wildlife biologists, and many other environmental professionals. Attending students benefit from meeting people working in a broad range of environmental careers. Teachers/advisers benefit from the breadth of the subjects covered and find the program a wonderful source of networking and professional growth for their own careers.

In May, teams meet for a day-long, fun filled field competition at a park, camp or nature preserve. At this event, teams are challenged to work together to answer questions and conduct hands-on investigations with stations representing each of the four core study areas. Each team also prepares a short oral presentation on a real life environmental problem that is presented to the teams each year as a Current Issue. The Current Issue is an environmental problem related to the NCF Envirothon challenge.

The winning Envirothon team earns the chance to represent Connecticut at the NCF Envirothon competition during a week-long summertime event. The Connecticut team competes for scholarships and other prizes against about 60 other teams from the USA, Canada and China.

Visit the Connecticut Envirothon website to learn about how to “Take the Natural Challenge.”  

The Connecticut Envirothon relies on the generous contribution of funds and in-kind services to support its yearly programs of student workshops, teacher resources, the day long annual field event and funding for the winning team to attend the national competition. We ask you to consider contributing to this important environmental program by the CT Envirothon’s contribution page.