MCHS to represent Alberta at North American Envirothon Conference

by Lucie Roy

MCHS students Trinity Birch, Emma Van Brabant, Skylar Boissonnault and teacher Susanne Christensen were at the Regular Meeting of Council held Tuesday night.

Boissonnault spoke on behalf of the group on the success of the MCHS team at the Alberta Envirothon Competition held at the Hinton Training Centre in May.

The top three teams were Grande Prairie Composite High School with gold, MCHS with silver, and Hinton with bronze.

In her presentation, Boissonnault mentioned the first place winners were unable to attend to represent Alberta at the North American Envirothon to be held at the end of July at the North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Morinville has an opportunity to move up and go in first-place to compete in the event, which will draw more than 500 high school students, teachers, parents and chaperones.

The short notice left the MCHS students little time to fundraise for the money required to attend.

Councillor Lawrence Giffen moved that Council fund the students with $1000 from the Sponsorship budget to provide assistance to the MCHS team to attend the Envirothon. The sponsorship covers a portion of the cost per student, with $250 for each of the four students attending. The motion passed unanimously.

The Envirothon is a team-based environmental education competition of high schools students.
The teams compete in their knowledge of environmental science and natural resources through a series of field stations they rotate through and written tests, all working as a team and utilizing problem-solving skills followed by an oral presentation. The Field Stations include Aquatic Ecology, Forestry, Soils and Land Use, Wildlife, and this years’ theme which is Agriculture and Environment.