Eco-Meets are competitions that test high school students’ knowledge of Kansas’ wildlife and plants, rewarding the most naturally-qualified students with scholarships. Students are tested in four areas, which are updated annually: a particular habitat, a focus group (of animals), an outdoor scavenger hunt (to assess identification skills), and a fun interpretive event.
The State competition offers scholarships in various amounts for qualifying teams and individuals.
Wilson, Hutchinson, Wichita, and Milford offer scholarships. Hays and SE Kansas offer scholarships as funds allow.
Salina, Lawrence, Olathe, and SW Kansas do not offer scholarships.
For updated information on what each regional offers, visit your regional’s event page.
Yes, they can. Any extra people attending must pay the registration fee for State.
If additional students or adults want to attend a regional, their attendance needs to be approved by your regional coordinator in advance.
If you want to bring extra students, it needs to be approved in advance by the coordinator of the regional you plan to attend.
Extra people observing may be supervised to make sure they cannot interfere or provide any help to participating team members.
Substitutions can be made in teams at the regional events up until the morning of check-in, however, NO substitutions can be made at State. If a member of your team cannot attend state, then the team must compete with only three members (if it was a 4 man team to start with) or they cannot compete. (as a 2 member team).
Yes, refusal to participate in any one event disqualifies everyone on the team from the competition.
There are advantages and disadvantages to having a four person team. With a four person team, the lowest score in both table tests is dropped. The score is figured from the average of the remaining three scores. Four people on the scavenger hunt is obviously better than three but on the interpretive event, ALL four members must participate equally so if there is a team member not willing to participate, then choosing a three member team would be better.
Visit this page for information about the materials that will be tested at Eco-Meets this year.
Eco-Meets do align with state education standards. For information on the standards met by participation in each Eco-Meet, download this summary sheet.
Regional Eco-Meets are held throughout Kansas. Click here to see a map of the locations.
If you won scholarship money at any of the Eco-Meets and are now ready to claim your winnings, find the scholarship claim forms under Rules & Regulations
To see what your regional event offers in scholarship awards, please visit your regional’s event page.
At State, students are each awarded $300, $200, and $100 scholarships for first, second, and third place teams. Individual students placing first and second in the table tests receive $200 and $100 for each event.
For the 2017 and 2018 State Competitions, the Kansas Herpetological Society is awarding the scholarships to the top two students in the Herpetology exam.
Certificates are given for those placing in the competition as well as medals. Certificates of Participation are not awarded at meets.