Harford Christian School won its ninth straight Harford County Envirothon victory Tuesday during the 25th anniversary of the competition.
About 87 students from Harford County public and private high schools participated in the competition, which was held at the Eden Mill Nature Center in Pylesville.
The competition is designed to give students the opportunity to learn about environmental issues and natural resources by conducting tests in the field. They also can win college scholarships, according to the Maryland Envirothon website.
Under clear skies and mild temperatures with a slight breeze, competitors visited the testing stations around the nature center by Deer Creek.
"We have a beautiful day, it's the 25th anniversary of Envirothon," Howard Eakes, assistant supervisor of science for Harford County Public Schools.
North Harford High School came in second and Fallston High was third, according to results provided by Eakes.
By winning, the Harford Christian team qualified for the state Envirothon, which will be held June 17 and 18 at St. Mary's College. If they win, it will be their fourth state title.
"The biggest plus is motivating your students," Ada Stambaugh, a Harford Christian science teacher and the school's Envirothon coach, said Wednesday. "It's not what you do as an adviser, it's what the student's doing."
Stambaugh gave credit to her students for putting in the time to learn the material before the county contest, noting that Envirothon is an extra academic program on top of their regular course work.
"It's kind of a life-changing experience for them, to see the aspects of what we have here on Earth, to be good stewards of it, and they don't quite understand that in just a classroom setting," she said.
During the competition, the teams conduct experiments and the are tested in five subject areas. The first four – soils, forestry, wildlife and aquatics – are the same each year, while the fifth topic changes annually.
The fifth topic is based on an contemporary environmental issue, and each team must develop a solution. Urban forestry was this year's fifth topic, according to Patrick Jones of the Harford County Soil Conservation District, which organizes the competition.
The Soil Conservation District sponsors the county Envirothon, and Jones coordinates the event, including bringing experts in various environmental fields together to serve as instructors.
Several coaches at Tuesday's competition said many of their former students are working in the environmental field, inspired by their Envirothon experience.
Steve Hillyer, the Havre de Grace High School coach, has coached a team nearly every year since the Harford County Envirothon began in the early 1990s. Before coming to Havre de Grace High, Hillyer taught science at Joppatowne High School for 17 years, where he led Joppatowne to eight county Envirothon victories.
His teams have also won four state titles and one posted a second-place finish at the North American finals in 1997.
"We lost to Pennsylvania on their home field," Hillyer recalled.
Hillyer said Envirothon is "a wonderful activity for kids to get involved in, to do pretty cool things in the field."
He mentioned several former students who do environmental work for government, private sector or nonprofit entities, such as Raymond Bivens, who is the director of Parks and Recreation for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Bivens was a member of Hillyer's Joppatowne team in the early 90s.
Emily Francis, who was part of a team that placed fourth in the North American competition in 1994, is running for a seat in the Virginia State Senate this year. Hillyer noted Francis is running "on an environmental platform."
"[Envirothon] just brings kids together, and success stories are so numerous and so outstanding," he said.
North Harford freshmen Joud Omar, Justin Paul and Lane Kavanagh gathered with their teammates after finishing up at a testing station.
This year is the first Envirothon for all three.
"We love it," Joud said. "It's so much fun."
Joud and her teammates prepared for the competition with field tests on their school's Pylesville campus, which includes a pond and wooded areas that are also used for the school's agriculture and natural resources magnet studies program.
The three said they enjoyed interacting on their team with students they don't typically see during the school day, but they had not interacted much with teams from other schools.
"They've kind of kept to themselves," Justin said. "It's pretty competitive."
Joud and Justin talked about the aquatics section as their favorite part – Joud said she loves catching invertebrate animals in the stream.
Lane said he enjoys the wildlife section.
"I mostly like the animals, because I like hunting and fishing," he said.
The students also thanked their coach, science teacher Laura O'Leary, for making the topics enjoyable.
O'Leary, who has been an Envirothon coach for 15 years and has also had former students work in the environmental field, said her 2015 team, whose members included two of her sons, is "the most enthusiastic group I've ever had."
"It's the most amazing thing I do," she said. "I love exposing kids to these natural resource topics."