BROOKINGS A healthy ecosystem thrives on the interwoven balance of many elements coming together. Thats a lesson the Brookings High School Envirothon team took to heart. Two Brookings teams competed at the state championships this year, demonstrating their knowledge of environmental science by earning both first- and second-place trophies. The first-place team moves on to international competition this summer, marking the second straight year Brookings has represented South Dakota at that level.
Madelyn Berkenhoff who graduated from BHS in May competed at internationals last year and will do so again this summer. She said the five-person squad learned a lot about teamwork.
Its partially just learning to compromise, Berkenhoff said. We all have our special areas that we work on, but everyone takes the test together. So even if you are the only one who learned about your area, the other people are still reading the test with you. When you have two different answers, you learn who to trust.
At both levels of competition, students are given an environmental topic, tested on it and then tasked with making a group presentation about a specific scenario. They spend six hours alone in a room preparing.
It was a lot of just taking a deep breath and realizing we were all stressed after being in a room and thinking hard, Berkenhoff said. Theres only the one computer to be making the presentation on, so you want people to be working on different things all at once; but they cant put it all on the presentation all at once.
Brielle Smetana will be a senior next year. She also went to internationals last year and is making the return trip this summer. She said each of them specializes in an area aquatics, forestry, soil, wildlife and a current events topic that changes each year.
There is actually like a lot of teamwork, Smetana said. I know some things about aquatics and I can help (Marylin Lopez) with some of her questions. Marilyn knows some things about texturing soil, and she can help (Madelyn). Its like although we have one person to mainly focus on it, everyone knows little bits and pieces. We were really able to supplement one anothers knowledge.
She said the more they learned, the more they appreciated how interconnected everything is.
Its always just fun to learn something new, even something that seems so unimportant to your daily life, Smetana said. I just like learning about our environment. I just like learning about nature. In our world today especially, its so important to know how healthy the Earth is. I think nature goes underappreciated in the world today. Ive studied trees, and thats the signature face of nature. So its all really cool to help conceptualize the world.
Nana Kwame Dwomoh will be a senior next year. Hes competed in Envirothon before, but this summer marks his first chance to attend internationals.
Everyone on the team, theyre just such good people, Dwomoh said. Its definitely one of those activities that is, hard work equals results. Even if you dont get the results you want, its really fun. You learn so many things. I definitely learned things in Envirothon that I would not have learned at school. I was forced out of my comfort zone and had to learn new things.
He said theyre all confident in one anothers abilities.
It feels really good, especially when you know everyone on your team put in the work and really over-prepared, Dwomoh said. Theres a ton of people from all the different states and countries as well. I know the competition gets harder, too. But I think if we put in the work, well do well especially since my other teammates know what to expect.
Berkenhoff said that just as with nature its sometimes the unexpected that proves the most memorable.
(You learn) what to focus on and what to leave behind, she said. Like last year when we were taking the wildlife test, it started storming really bad. We all got soaked and were having to run under different tents and stuff. But it was one of my favorite parts because it made us realize it all wasnt so serious. We could just take a break, you know?
Last year, the Brookings team placed 34th at internationals. This years international tournament takes place in Canada July 20-26 at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta.
Contact Jay Roe at [email protected].
Leave a Reply