This week, the outdoors is the classroom as students take part in the annual Carbon County Envirothon.

The Carbon County Environmental Education Center hosted the first of four days of competition among student teams from around the county on Monday.

“It’s about coming and learning outdoors, but also being protectors of the planet,” said Jeannie Carl, naturalist with the Carbon County Environmental Education Center.

During the event students compete in written tests with their peers from other schools in five subject areas - aquatics, wildlife, forestry, soil and current events.

On Monday students in grades 2-3 from Lehighton, Tamaqua, Weatherly, L.B. Morris, Towamensing and West Penn competed.

Higher grade levels will get their chance later in the week. The winners of the high school competition continue to the state level, where they face the winners of other county envirothons.

The mission of the event is to promote environmental education. The skills benefit students in the classroom, but also in their understanding of the natural world.

“We try to get them to think about - it is their planet, and they are the future decision makers,” Carl said.

Only a handful of students from each class get to participate in the envirothon. They have to show good grades and group work.

The chance to spend the day learning outside at the environmental center is a reward. Some students haven’t had a field trip since the beginning of the pandemic.

“Anytime you’re putting kids outside, and they’re getting an opportunity to learn in a different type of classroom, it makes it very memorable,” said Tiffany Strausberger, a third-grade teacher at Lehighton Elementary Center.

Winners take home T-shirts, ribbons and plaques, which are funded through donations from local Lions clubs.

Throughout the week, lessons are taught by educators from the center, 4-H, and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry.

The second- and third-graders learned about how foresters identify trees, the components of healthy soil, and the water cycle.

Older students will have to know more advanced topics.

For elementary students like Lehighton third-grader Ava Rodweller, the event gets them excited for competing in the envirothon in the future, and learning about the world around them.

“I learned we should help our environment and keep it healthy,” she said.