Beating an invincible rival is sweet no matter what the competition. The 2015 ALES Range Team knows how it feels.
The nine-member team topped the mighty team from the Antonio Narro Agrarian Autonomous University in Mexico when it took first place in the Plant Identification contest at student competitions sponsored by the Society for Range Management in early February. Mexico had lost its grip on first place in that category only once in two decades, back in 2001 when ALES also triumphed.
Overall, the ALES Range Team won three first-place finishes and equaled last year's total haul of 10 awards at the competition held in Sacramento, Calif., during the society's annual meeting.
In the Combined Individual High Score category, ALES students swept first through fourth place, as follows: Leah Rodvang, Kassia James, Ian Brusselers and Scott Proudfoot.
The Combined individual High Score awards are a test of knowledge as well as a bit of a marathon as two challenging exams are written in two days: Plant Identification and the Undergraduate Range Management Exam.
For the plant ID exam, students get one minute per sample to identify 100 plants of the rangelands of western North America, drawn from a master list of 200. Samples might be individual flowers, fruits, buds, seeds, or merely a root.
"It is hard to describe the difficulty in identifying plants from small morphological features until you've experienced it," said team coach Barry Irving.
Kassia James earned first place in the plant ID exam and Leah Rodvang took fourth. James credits the ENCS 407 course Irving teaches for preparing her and urges more students to tackle it.
"It's a great way to learn plants," she said. "More and more companies are asked to use native plants in their reclamations, so you have to know what they look like."
The URME is a multiple-choice exam that encompasses all material learned during an undergraduate program in range management. Students have 120 minutes to answer 120 multiple choice questions plus three word problems that require interpretation.
Leah Rodvang took individual third place in the URME, and the team tied for third place.
"Range team taught me a lot about plants, where to look for key ID features, how to tell the difference between families, tribes and genuses," said Rodvang. "All the skills I learned during my time on the range team will help me in pursuing lifelong learning."
Senior team members also tied for second place in the Rangeland Cup poster contest. James, Rodvang, Ian Brusselers, Christine Lien and Harvey Yuen created a poster on the importance and evaluation of diversity in rangeland ecology.
Other members of the 2015 team were Christine Head, Keisha Hollman and Katelynd Wentzell. Edward Bork and Cameron Carlyle provided additional academic assistance.
Some 200 undergraduates, representing 22 schools from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, competed in the annual event.
The nine-member team topped the mighty team from the Antonio Narro Agrarian Autonomous University in Mexico when it took first place in the Plant Identification contest at student competitions sponsored by the Society for Range Management in early February. Mexico had lost its grip on first place in that category only once in two decades, back in 2001 when ALES also triumphed.
Overall, the ALES Range Team won three first-place finishes and equaled last year's total haul of 10 awards at the competition held in Sacramento, Calif., during the society's annual meeting.
In the Combined Individual High Score category, ALES students swept first through fourth place, as follows: Leah Rodvang, Kassia James, Ian Brusselers and Scott Proudfoot.
The Combined individual High Score awards are a test of knowledge as well as a bit of a marathon as two challenging exams are written in two days: Plant Identification and the Undergraduate Range Management Exam.
For the plant ID exam, students get one minute per sample to identify 100 plants of the rangelands of western North America, drawn from a master list of 200. Samples might be individual flowers, fruits, buds, seeds, or merely a root.
"It is hard to describe the difficulty in identifying plants from small morphological features until you've experienced it," said team coach Barry Irving.
Kassia James earned first place in the plant ID exam and Leah Rodvang took fourth. James credits the ENCS 407 course Irving teaches for preparing her and urges more students to tackle it.
"It's a great way to learn plants," she said. "More and more companies are asked to use native plants in their reclamations, so you have to know what they look like."
The URME is a multiple-choice exam that encompasses all material learned during an undergraduate program in range management. Students have 120 minutes to answer 120 multiple choice questions plus three word problems that require interpretation.
Leah Rodvang took individual third place in the URME, and the team tied for third place.
"Range team taught me a lot about plants, where to look for key ID features, how to tell the difference between families, tribes and genuses," said Rodvang. "All the skills I learned during my time on the range team will help me in pursuing lifelong learning."
Senior team members also tied for second place in the Rangeland Cup poster contest. James, Rodvang, Ian Brusselers, Christine Lien and Harvey Yuen created a poster on the importance and evaluation of diversity in rangeland ecology.
Other members of the 2015 team were Christine Head, Keisha Hollman and Katelynd Wentzell. Edward Bork and Cameron Carlyle provided additional academic assistance.
Some 200 undergraduates, representing 22 schools from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, competed in the annual event.