Norwin team wins county Envirothon competition
A group of Norwin High School students took first place in this year’s Westmoreland County Envirothon, which was held virtually for the first time in 35 years.
The Norwin team will compete in the Pennsylvania Envirothon, which also will be held virtually, over a period of several days this month, according to the Westmoreland Conservation District, which coordinates the event. The members of the Norwin team competing for scholarships and prizes at the state championship are: Gabriella Conley, Emilie Horton, Lily Jarosz, Nicholas Markovina and Raveena Navalgund.
The event featured 40 students from five high schools, fewer than in previous years when typically there are 100 students from nine area schools, the conservation district said. Two Southmoreland High School teams took second and third place. Derry, Franklin Regional, and Burrell also competed.
While none of the teams from the five participating high schools could measure a tree or examine the teeth of a bobcat skull as they might have done in past years when the Envirothon was held at a Westmoreland County park, they faced the same kind of challenging natural resource questions on-line, the conservation district said.
Norwin has been a top finisher the past few years. It won the county Envirothon three times since 2014 and had six top finishers in the last seven years, according Joyce Muchoney, who has been the Norwin team adviser for 14 years. Muchoney is the Norwin High School academic biology and advancement placement environmental science teacher.
“Many of the students that participate in the Envirothon are current or former students of mine. The curriculum for AP Environmental Science has a lot of overlap with the Envirothon testable content, so that helps the students to prepare for the competition,” Muchoney said.
They used the Pennsylvania Envirothon app and website that has information for training for the competition, Muchoney said.
In a typical year, the team has in-person training sessions for wildlife and forestry identification and techniques,” but we have done all of the training online this year,” Muchoney said.
Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.
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