Rules

The Texas Envirothon is open to students enrolled in grades 9 through 12 or equivalent home school ranking in the school year immediately preceding the current competition.

Prospective teams must make contact with the Texas Envirothon office.

Wendy Reistle
Environmental Institute of Houston
University of Houston-Clear Lake
2700 Bay Area Blvd.
Houston, TX 77058
(281) 283-3045
reistle@uhcl.edu

Each team will consist of five members from the same school and/or organization. Teams with less than five members will be allowed to participate, but may lose points for the Oral Presentation part of the competition. Only the five registered team members (no alternates) will be allowed to participate in any of the Texas Envirothon competition activities. The Texas Envirothon Advisory Committee will approve emergency substitutions. It is neither the intent nor desire of the Texas Envirothon Committee for any group to develop or organize a super team composed of members from various schools, organizations, or associations.

Each team must be accompanied at the competition by at least one team advisor. Each team must arrange for an adult male to chaperone male team members and an adult female to chaperone female team members. The Texas Envirothon will not be responsible for improperly chaperoned teams.

During the competition, the advisors may not accompany the teams to the testing stations or during the oral presentation preparation.

Advisors will be responsible to assure that teams display proper conduct during the competition and at the host facility. Tobacco products, non-prescription drugs, alcoholic beverages, and possession or use of anything that is deemed illegal by federal, state, or local laws are prohibited at the Texas Envirothon.

Transportation, meals, lodging, and liability for team members en route to and from state or regional competition will be the responsibility of each participating school or organization.

It is required that all participants in the Texas Envirothon have proof of health insurance.

Registration forms and a non-refundable registration fee shall be required annually for each team.

Resource materials will be provided via the Texas Envirothon website.

The maximum number of teams able to participate at the state level is dependent on the capacity of the event facilities, and may vary from year to year.

The Texas Envirothon Advisory Committee, prior to the start of the competition, will establish an appeals committee.

Any team, team member, team advisor/chaperone, or resource person associated with a team discovered on, near, or around the test site or testing stations prior to or during the competition may be subject to immediate disqualification.

Written Field Competition:

• There will be testing stations covering five topics: soils/land use, aquatic ecology, wildlife, forestry, and the current issue. The NCF-Envirothon selects the current issue annually.

• Competitors are prohibited from bringing any materials to the testing site.

Oral Competition:

• All participating team members in the oral competition must wear official Texas Envirothon shirts during the oral presentations. During oral presentations, no team identifications either written or stated are permitted.

• The oral presentation will be judged by professionals from various organizations and agencies on the basis of a standard criteria sheet provided by Texas Envirothon.

• The oral presentations focus on the current environmental issue, as set by the NCF-Envirothon annually.

• Competitors are prohibited from bringing any materials into the oral presentation preparation room. Materials needed for preparation will be provided.

• The presentations will last no longer than 20 minutes with an additional 10 minutes for questions. All team members must participate orally in the competition.

Scoring & Placement: The written field test will count 500 points of the total score. The oral presentation will count 200 points. The final determination of winners will be the scores of the written field tests plus the score of the oral presentation.

Tiebreaker procedures for first through third place winners will be as follows: scores on oral presentation, current environmental issue, soils/land use, aquatic ecology, forest, and wildlife.

The winning team will compete in the NCF-Envirothon. This team should consist of the same members who competed at the state level. An alternate may be used only for a team member that is unable to attend due to prior commitments, emergency, or illness. If an alternate needs to be placed on the state winning team, then the team must make an appeal to the Texas Envirothon Committee and a decision will be made regarding the winning team’s request. All decisions are final and only one alternate will be allowed on the team. Only one state champion or designated team, certified by the Texas Envirothon Steering Committee, will represent Texas at the NCF-Envirothon competition.

If a winning team opts not to attend the NCF-Envirothon, the team with the next highest cumulative score is eligible. The winning team will have one week to decide if they want to participate in the NCF-Envirothon. After one week, the next highest scoring team will be offered the opportunity until a team is selected.

The rules and procedures of the Texas Envirothon are subject to change pending the approval by a majority of the Texas Envirothon Steering Committee members.

Any infraction of the rules and procedures of the Texas Envirothon could result in disqualification and dismissal from the event and host site.