The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching is the highlight of my teaching career. To be honored at the national level provides recognition that a devotion to teaching our nation's youth is valued throughout the country. I am grateful that I can represent my school, town, and state with the Presidential Award. I hope through this award I can provide encouragement and support to other teachers who dedicate themselves to this challenging and rewarding career.

Darlene Ruble Eureka, MT | 7-12, Science, 2009

The official biography below was current at the time of the award.

Darlene Ruble has been involved with education in the State of Montana for more than 28 years. After 1 year of teaching Chemistry at Western Montana College and 1 year as a mathematics teacher in Wolf Point, she has been teaching at Lincoln County High School for the last 26 years. Her primary area of teaching has been the Physical Sciences, Physics and Chemistry for upper-level students and Physical Science for freshman. Throughout her career, Darlene has been actively involved in professional development, especially in the area of technology in the classroom. Her research for her master's degree was on microcomputer interfacing in the science classroom. Darlene has been trained as a Physics Teaching Resource Agent and attended Project PHYSlab. Darlene has been training students to be peer mediators for 9 years. She has taken students on science and technology career exploration trips for 19 years. Many students have gained valuable life skills and found a career path due to these efforts outside the classroom. Darlene has a B.A. in Botany from Ohio Wesleyan University, a B.S. in Secondary Education Broadfield Science from Western Montana College, and an M.S. in Technology Education from Montana State University. She is certified in broadfield science and mathematics.

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