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Williams College junior Jeffrey Rubel helped a team of Mount Greylock students participate in Envirothon.
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A team of Mount Greylock students won fourth-place in the school's first Envirothon appearance.

Mt. Greylock Students Win Fourth in First Envirothon Appearance

By Julia MunemoWilliams College
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williams College junior Jeffrey Rubel helped a team of Mount Greylock students take fourth place statewide in their first-ever appearance at Envirothon.

On May 12, the students competed in a statewide environmental science competition called Envirothon. The event, which takes place at Hopkinton State Park in eastern Massachusetts, brings teams from across the state to an outdoor, hands-on competition. Winning teams from each state will compete in Ontario in July at the North American Envirothon. A full list of the winners can be found here.

Rubel, a geosciences major, organized the team through his work at the Williams Center at Mount Greylock. He has coached the group since November, designing lesson plans, organizing field trips, and preparing hands-on activities.

“I assigned each member of the team an area of expertise from the four main topics tested during Envirothon,” he said. “Every week, one of the students gives a presentation on their topic.”

The team — eight high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors — met every Sunday afternoon preparing for the competition. Some weeks they were in the classroom giving or listening to presentations on water, soil, forestry, or wildlife. Other times, they were in the field studying anything from the trees at Hopkins Forest to the health of the stream at the base of Spring Street.

“The Envirothon curriculum is built on the intersection of the theoretical and the practical, the textbook learning and the hands-on experience,” Rubel said.

Rubel was part of the team from his high school in Kansas City, Mo. that went to the North American competition all four years he was there. His team won once.

“The fieldwork makes everything we’ve been learning suddenly transform from technical concepts into concrete things we can see in front of us,” said Anya Sheldon, a high school senior and team member. Fieldwork is also important for the competition, which takes place entirely outside.


“Students walk around the forest with a clipboard and a test,” Rubel said. “The experience brings environmental science to life.”

Assistant Director of Local High School Education Kaatje White, who directs the Williams Center at Mount Greylock, looks for opportunities to enhance the programming at the junior-senior high school. She knew she had landed on a perfect plan to do so with environmental science when Rubel told her about his experience and said he’d be willing to coach a team.

“What I like about coaching the Mount Greylock Envirothon team is that I’m not only working with local students, but I’m giving back to a program that gave so much to me,” Rubel said.

The program hopes to prepare high school students for environmental careers and active citizenship.

“These students may or may not major in science in college, but they are very likely to be our future leaders,” Rubel said. “I hope the knowledge and understanding of the world they gain through Envirothon stays with them.”

Sheldon says that’s the main goal. “I don’t think any of us are particularly bent on winning,” she says. “We’re just in this to learn the most we can.”

“Envirothon offers Mount Greylock students a wonderful academic experiential stretch outside the classroom,” White said. “I hope it will become a yearly event and would love to see Williamstown host the Envirothon competition one day.”
 

 


Tags: MGRHS,   Williams College,   

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Williamstown Fire District Inks 3-Year Deal with New Chief

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff

Jeffrey Dias of the Onset Fire Department has signed a contract to become Williamstown's fire chief. 
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town's next fire chief says he was "ecstatic" when he heard that he would be offered the post.
 
On Tuesday afternoon, the Prudential Committee ratified a contract to make Jeffrey Dias the successor to Chief Craig Pedercini, who retired from the post on Monday.
 
"It's very sad to leave someplace you've been the better part of three decades," said Dias, currently the deputy chief and a long-time firefighter in the South Shore community of Onset. "But I'm very excited. A lot of big things are going to happen in the future."
 
The five-member Prudential Committee, which oversees the district, selected Dias on March 12 from among three candidates it interviewed earlier in the month.
 
Last week, the committee held an executive session — a rarity for the body — to discuss the negotiation of the contract. And on Tuesday, at a special meeting, the board voted to approve the deal.
 
Dias agreed to a three-year deal with a $125,000 base salary and 3 percent cost-of-living adjustments in years two and three.
 
"We are very excited to have Chief Dias lead the department forward as we look forward to the completion of our new station and the future of the Williamstown Fire Department," Prudential Committee Chair David Moresi said on Thursday.
 
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