November 17, 2005
For Immediate Release
For more information:
Megan Laurie
(801) 863-7149
Written by:
Kyle Chilton
(801) 863-7205
UVSC Plant Identification Team to Compete on International Level
The Utah Valley State College plant identification team took second place at the recent Utah Chapter of the Society for Range Management’s state competition and is headed to the international competition in Vancouver, British Columbia in February.
The identification contest, in which UVSC competed against teams from Brigham Young University and Utah State, required the students to learn a list of 200 plants and from that list, 100 were selected and displayed for identification. Students had 60 seconds to write the family, genus and species for each plant and spelling counted.
This is the fifth-consecutive year UVSC will send a team to the national competition, which takes place at the Society for Range Management Annual Meeting in Vancouver in February 2006. The team earned back-to-back fourth place finishes in 2004 and 2005.
The team consists of seven students, including: Wendy Yates (Saratoga Springs, Utah), Aprille Newell (Salem, Oregon), Yvonne Eele (Provo, Utah), Thayne Dickey (Provo, Utah), Robert Sabin (Provo, Utah), Dan Cloward (Provo, Utah) and Eli Angus (Vernal, Utah). Six of the students are biology majors while Aprille Newell is an integrated studies major (biology and geology). The team is coached by Ally Bench, who graduated from UVSC in 2004 in biology and is a former member of the plant team. She was hired by the Biology Department as the botany lab manager following graduation.
“For our team to place in the top five for two-consecutive years is an outstanding accomplishment considering other teams have been competing for more than 10 years,” Bench said. “Those who participate have dedicated many hours to the rigorous task of learning minute characteristics about the plants. We are hoping for another top-five finish in February.”
For more information about the UVSC plant identification team or the international competition, contact Ally Bench at (801) 863-8695.
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