About

Teams of five students from the same school or youth organization must be sponsored and certified by an official state, provincial, or partner nation Envirothon representative — and participation in a prior Envirothon training program is required before competing at the national level. Competition runs through a three-level structure of regional, state, and international rounds, with state champions advancing to the NCF Annual Competition held each July at a rotating university host site. At each level, teams rotate through five stations, spending 45 minutes per station on written exams and hands-on field assessments administered by natural resource professionals. Judging is comprehensive: written station scores are combined with criteria-based evaluation of an oral presentation in which teams must analyze major natural resource and environmental problems through political, ecological, economic, social, and cultural frameworks simultaneously. First-place teams at the NCF level receive a $200 cash prize and a $500 scholarship per team member; second and third place also receive cash awards.

The field-based format and oral presentation requirement are what separate Envirothon from desk-based science competitions. A team reaching the NCF level has cleared two competitive filters, mastered five environmental science disciplines, and demonstrated the ability to reason across multiple analytical frameworks under pressure — in front of professional judges, outdoors. For students seriously interested in conservation, ecology, or environmental policy, it is the most substantive field-based competition available at the high school level.

NCF-Envirothon is the right competition for a team of five students with shared and serious commitment to environmental science — the preparation runs the full school year, and the oral presentation component rewards integrative thinking that no amount of last-minute studying can replicate.