Upper St. Clair students excel in Envirothon
Teams from Upper St. Clair’s Fort Couch and Boyce middle schools earned several top honors at the Junior Envirothon held May 11 at the Cottage at South Park.
Among 23 schools in the middle school division, the Fort Couch team of Josh Beitler, Matt Beitler, Callum Pollock, Anthony Dipiazza, and Malo Dubreil placed first. The Fort Couch team of Trevor McClintock-Comeaux, Ryan Katukota, Suhavi Singh, Aanya Agrawal, and Ahana Mendhi secured second place.
In addition, Josh Beitler was singled out as the top scorer in the entire competition at the Soils and Land Use station.
Tom Yochum, gifted coordinator, coached the Fort Couch Middle School students.
Competing among 21 schools in the elementary division, the Boyce Middle School team of Sara Alhajhusain, Kenzie Petrick, Sarah Staub and Rebecca Zahalsky placed second. Finishing third was the team of Eamon Castrodale, Michael Clarke, Mateo Lin, Brayden Wong and Alex Zhang.
The Boyce students were coached by Sherri Garvey, gifted/enrichment resource teacher.
The Junior Envirothon is a “natural resource environmental education program that combines classroom learning and outdoor activities.” The program is modeled after the high school Envirothon, which is an annual competition across the commonwealth. Students compete in small teams across five domains, or stations: Aquatic Ecology, Forestry, Soils and Land Use, Wildlife, and Current Issues.