Bartel wins conservation award
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
Darlene Bartel isn't quite sure why she's being recognized — but she'll find out Saturday night.
That's when this Hillsboro Middle School teacher will receive the Conservation Education award at the 2003 Marion County Conservation District annual meeting, to be held at Parkview M.B. Church. The meal begins at 6:30 p.m.
"I'm really curious to see what this is all about," she said.
Bartel teaches eighth grade science at HMS, mainly focusing on earth and physical science, she said. Bartel and her husband, Daryl, also farm several acres northwest of Hillsboro, and they use the "minimum till" method.
As a science teacher, Bartel has brought in soil conservation expert Gary Schuler every year to talk about topics ranging from watershed to water quality. Sometimes he meets Bartel's class out at the Marion Reservoir to test water samples.
That kind of hands-on practical experience is what Bartel loves bringing to her students.
"I want students to see the practical application," she said. "That's where the classroom meets real life."
Bartel's students head out to the reservoir three times a year, usually in both the fall and spring, she said. This year they'll be going just in the spring.
Out at the reservoir, students can use kits to test water on the spot. It's the kind of authentic experiment that Bartel wants her students to experience — not just mixing baking powder and vinegar to make a volcano, she said.
Bartel's eighth graders not only know what's in the water, but they know where the water is going. By studying area watersheds they learn where the area runoff goes, since it doesn't all go to the same place.
Her students have also done some "virtual" experiments through the JASON project, which takes students to far-away places through a satellite feed on the TEEN network. That way, students have experienced deep-sea experiments, seen birds have their legs banded, even traveled to the icy poles of the globe.
Bartel doesn't have a specific "conservation unit" in her curriculum, but she wishes she had more flexibility to take her students out of the classroom and into real-world experiments. And for the age level she teaches, it's hard to get good laboratory experiments, she said.
Bartel has a bachelor's degree in biology from Tabor College. After spending years working as laboratory x-ray technician, she moved into education. She's taught eighth grade for the past five years.
