STEM Student Repeats as Wildlife Habitat Competition State Champion

Penn High School’s Isaac Loutzenhiser is again the State of Indiana's Individual State Champion in the Indiana  Wildlife Habitat Education Career Development Contest.

 

Loutzenhiser repeated as state champion in the 2017 competition. Only four other students statewide have achieved this accomplishment of repeating as a state champion, and all of them were from Penn High School.

 

Penn’s Elena Effertz placed second in the state.

 

Loutzenhiser and Effertz’s 1-2 finish, along with the scoring of teammates Coy Harris and Arithon Effertz, led to a third-place team showing for Penn in the 2017 State contest held at Purdue University's Wright Center for Forestry Research.

 

The contest consists of four parts an Identification Segment including up to 53 species of Indiana Wildlife; a 100 Question Test over the animal species, their habitats, feed, and behaviors; a Wildlife Habitat Management Practices section where the competitors match the appropriate practices for the animals selected for a specific site, and the Team Activity where the four members of the team create a Wildlife Management Plan for eight species of animals at a specific contest habitat site.

 

Penn’s team is coached by Mel Lenig.