Team Registration

RULES and REGULATIONS
REVISED – September 24, 2024

Eligibility Requirements
1. Team members must be enrolled in grade levels nine (9) through twelve (12) or in an equivalent non-traditional school program ranking. Students can only participate in a maximum of four high school state Envirothon events.
2. Each team or team member shall participate in only one county event per school year.
3. All members on a team must represent the same educational unit (public, private, parochial, non-traditional school).

Team Requirements
4. County conservation districts, or the PA Envirothon Board-approved sponsoring organization, must register a team of exactly five (5) members and one (1) to two (2) advisors/chaperones (non-student adult, 20 years or older) in order to compete in the state level event.
Each team is encouraged to arrange for a male to advise/chaperone male team members and a female to advise/chaperone female team members.
5. Each team must start the state competition with five (5) team members. The team can finish with four (4) but no fewer than four (4) members. The start of the state competition is defined as the submission of the team’s official oral component video.
6. Substitution requirements:
i. Absolutely no substitutions can be made after the start of the state competition.
ii. In the event that a team chosen to attend the Pennsylvania State Envirothon cannot send five (5) original team members that competed together at the county level, the advisor, with approval of the county conservation district or the PA Envirothon Board-approved sponsoring organization, is permitted to make substitutions for one (1) or two (2) of the original five (5) team members only. Each team must be made up of at least three (3) members of the original team and no more than five (5) total members. All members and substitutions must represent the same educational unit and have competed in the same county event.
iii. In the event that no substitutes can be found, a team may start and participate with four (4) members as exhibition only. Teams competing as exhibition only will not be eligible for ranking or prizes.
iv. In the event a county’s winning team cannot attend the state event, the next highest scoring county team may be sent in its place so long as the Pennsylvania Envirothon Rules are met, and that team meets the requirements of the county conservation district or the PA Envirothon Board-approved sponsoring organization. The county conservation district’s or a PA Envirothon Board-approved sponsoring organization’s decision is final.
7. Non-traditional schools (home, cyber, and charter schools) may form their own team specifically for participation in the Pennsylvania Envirothon, and they must petition a county conservation district or a PA Envirothon Board-approved sponsoring organization for recognition to participate in an Envirothon event. All team members must participate in the same county event in order to participate at the state level. How non-traditional school teams are organized to participate in a county Envirothon event is at the discretion of a county conservation district or a PA Envirothon Board-approved sponsoring organization.

Station Testing Day Regulations
8. For liability reasons only registered participants (team members and advisors/chaperones) are permitted on the competition/event site.
9. Each county team will rotate AS A TEAM through the testing stations (Aquatic Ecology, Forestry, Soil and Land Use, Wildlife, and Current Issue).
10. Advisors/chaperones are not permitted on or near the testing circuit during the event. Advisors/chaperones will be given an opportunity to tour the testing stations during the official advisor tour.
11. Any team, team member, team advisor, or team chaperone discovered on, near, or around the testing circuit before the competition begins shall be subject to disqualification.
12. All test scores are final. Tests and scoring materials will remain the property of the Pennsylvania Envirothon Board of Directors.
13. Envirothon members shall only use reference and resource materials provided by agency or Envirothon representatives at the stations. No personal reference or resource materials are allowed on the testing circuit.
14. All team members and advisors/chaperones must wear Envirothon provided identification tags at all times during the event.
15. No electronic or battery-operated devices (i.e., ipods, cell phones, smart watches, pagers, calculators, computers, camcorders, cameras, or taping devices, etc.) are allowed on the testing circuit. Media personnel (press, camera crew, and agency personnel) will be provided, in advance, with an identification badge.
16. No backpacks or similar cases shall be taken on the testing circuit. A small container for carrying personal items, (i.e. lip balm, medications, sunscreen, etc.) is allowed.
17. The winning team at the Pennsylvania Envirothon is the team with the highest cumulative score, which includes scores from the five testing stations and the oral component. The oral component will be one-sixth of the total score.
i. Station tiebreakers – In the event of a tie at any given station, predetermined tie breaking question(s) will determine the winner of that station.
ii. Overall Score tiebreakers – In the case of an overall tie, the soils test score will determine the placement for the final scores in the Envirothon.
18. English shall be designated the official language of the Pennsylvania Envirothon. All written (field) tests and oral presentation scenarios shall be in English.
19. No pets of any kind may be brought on the site of the Pennsylvania Envirothon.

Oral Presentation Component
The Oral Presentation Component is conducted as follows:
20 All teams will compete in the oral presentation component. In order to complete the full 2025 State Envirothon, they MUST participate in the oral presentation component, or they will receive a zero (0) for 1/6th of their score.
21 The scenario for the oral presentation is posted to the Pennsylvania Envirothon Station Training – Oral Component website page two Fridays before the Oral Components are required to be submitted, no later than 9:00 a.m.
22 Advisors shall NOT prepare their team’s presentation but may provide general guidance; such as reviewing the rubric and clarification of the scenario. Questions about the content of the scenario will not be answered by representatives of the Pennsylvania Envirothon (i.e., interpret the scenario on your own).
23 The oral presentation component will take place Wednesday, May 14 through Friday, May 16, 2025. Presentations will be pre-recorded, and students will join judges to participate in the viewing of their recorded presentation and a live questions and answers (Q&A) session. All five (5) team members must participate in the pre-recorded video.
a. If one team member is unable to attend the live Q&A session, there will NOT be points deducted. A 4-member team, for the Q&A only, will be accepted without penalty.
b. No substitutions may be made after the recorded video is submitted. The 5-member team in the pre-recorded video is the team that must participate in the remainder of the event (live Q&A and station testing).
24 Slide and Oral Presentation Format - The 2025 Pennsylvania Envirothon will require the use of PowerPoint or Google Slides for the Oral Presentation Component segment of the competition. Teams should deliver their presentation as though they are presenting to a live audience (standing next to a projector screen and using power point) and film the presentation. Teams should not utilize video production technology for their presentation.
a. The presentation may not be longer than 12 minutes. Any presentation longer than 12 minutes will stopped when 12 minutes is reached.
b. A maximum of 20 of slides is allowed, and the presentation should be created with the 12-minute time limit in mind. When preparing the presentation, teams should take care to ensure that their solution is clear and concise.
c. Although teams should NOT state the name of their school during their presentation or on any accompanying slides, they may include the names of the team members. To ensure no bias, perceived or real, teams are assigned a number and must refrain from referencing their school/county during the competition. Team members are required to wear appropriate clothing that does NOT identify the origin of their school or county. This includes not wearing items with a school, town, or county-related logo/name at any time during the oral presentation segment.
d. The video submitted should mimic as closely as possible the team standing in front of a panel and presenting it to them in person. The entire team should be present and using their developed PowerPoint/Google Slides as a visual aid. The only visual aid acceptable is a PowerPoint/Google slides presentation that the team develops. No video editing, animation, etc, is allowed. The goal of the video is to be one continuous take from start to finish of the team using their PowerPoint/Google Slides as a visual aid and presenting their information addressing the points of the scenario to the panel of judges. Points will be deducted for editing your video and may be subject to disqualification.
e. Team-created graphics and photos are allowed in the presentation.
f. Other photos and graphics may also be included (not team-created) but must be used only in accordance with each photo’s associated usage rights. Each non-original photo MUST be cited appropriately to avoid copyright infringement.
g. All team members must participate in the creation of the presentation and participate in/speak during the presentation recording.
h. The presentation must be saved in MP4. Presentations will be viewed on computers with Microsoft Office. Directions to upload presentation videos will be provided to registered PA Envirothon teams in May.
25. Oral Presentation Time Limit/Q&A
a. Time limits will be enforced, and any submitted presentations that go over 12 minutes will be stopped at the 12 minute mark.
b. Judges will have eight (8) minutes for Q&A.
26 Presentation Deadline
a. Pre-recorded presentations must be submitted no later than 9:00 a.m. on Monday, May 12, 2025, to Pennsylvania Envirothon.
b. Presentations submitted after the posted deadline will not be viewed or scored. If a team experiences technical difficulties when submitting their presentation, they must inform Pennsylvania Envirothon via phone or email PRIOR to the submission deadline to determine alternate submission methods.
27 Scoring
a. The oral presentation is scored by a panel of judges based on the rubric provided with the problem scenario.
b. The oral presentation is worth 1/6th of the team’s total competition score
c. In the event of a tie for the oral component, the current issue test score will be used as a tiebreaker.

Pennsylvania’s Representative to the NCF- Envirothon regulations
28 In the event Pennsylvania’s winning team from the state level competition cannot attend the NCF-Envirothon, the next highest scoring team may be sent in its place.
29 The Pennsylvania Envirothon must register a team of five (5) members and one (1) or two (2) advisors/chaperones to compete in the NCF-Envirothon.
The NCF-Envirothon rules require a mixed gender team to have a male and a female advisor/chaperone, no exception.

Concluding Rules and Regulations
30 Any team involved with any infraction of the rules or inconsistencies shall be subject to disqualification. If any rule is suspected of being violated, the infraction shall be reported to the Pennsylvania Envirothon Board of Directors for action.
31 The Pennsylvania Envirothon Rules are subject to change by the Pennsylvania Envirothon Board of Directors. Any and all changes will be announced before the competition begins.
32 Any exception must be considered by the Pennsylvania Envirothon Board of Directors, and all decisions made by the Pennsylvania Envirothon Board of Directors are final.