On March 6th the Dixon High School Envirothon team won first place in Freeport regional at Highland Community college. This year the Dixon High School team consisted of Justin Hohlen, John Thomas, Joey Hammitt, Vivian Villegas and Kacie Dillow. All 5 team members are juniors have a strong interest in science and natural resources.

The regional competition in Freeport consisted of the 6 counties of Jo Daviess, Ogle, Lee, Stephenson, Whiteside and Carroll. Nearly 30 high school teams competed. The team won $2000 in scholarship money and will advance to the state competition held in May in Monticello, IL.

The Envirothon is an exciting way for high school students to learn about current environmental issues.  It was established as a competitive, problem-solving natural resource event for high school students to challenge them about the environment. Science teacher and team advisor Jeff Clark has assembled a DHS Envirothon team every year since its local inception in 2000.

The Envirothon has two basic components: the actual competition and the studying that takes place prior to the competition. The competition consists of 5 stations that test students on 5 different environmental subjects. The students are given study materials months in advance covering the topics of soils, forestry, aquatics, wildlife and a current environmental issue. The day of the competition the students listen to presentations given by professionals in these areas. They then take 5 different tests over these topics.