Herman Hilkey Named 2013 Far Western Section Outstanding Earth Science Teacher

Grand Terrace resident Herman Hilkey has a long list of accomplishments on his resume: he's spent 10 years teaching earth science, is the current Chairman of San Jacinto High School's Science Department, has a Master's in Science from the University of Southern California (USC), and has a teaching credential that allows him to teach at various grade levels. Now, he's got another accomplishment to add. Hilkey was named this year by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers as the Outstanding Earth Science Teacher (OEST) for 2013-2014 in the Far Western Section, which covers California, Nevada and Hawaii. Hilkey was one of ten national finalists selected for the OEST awards this year. OEST awardees receive a plaque and a two year membership with the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, including a subscription to the online Journal of Geoscience Education. Other gifts, including monetary awards and tangible teaching materials, are given to certain section winners by donors including the American Geological Institute, the American Geophysical Union, the American Institute of Professional Geologists and the U.S. Geological Survey. OEST awards are given for "exceptional contributions to the stimulation of interest in the Earth Sciences at a pre-college level," according to the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT). Any teacher or K-12 educator who "covers a significant amount of earth science" with students is eligible for this award, according to the NAGT. With student motivation being what he constantly strives for in his classroom, Hilkey has proven himself worthy of his new title. Having worked with "an outstanding collection of amazing and committed educators," he says, and acting as the Science Department chair, Hilkey has led both the department and the students to outstanding feats. During his tenure as a department chair and as an educator, Hilkey has improved San Jacinto High School state test results in earth science from below the Riverside County scores to seven continuous years of scores at or above the Riverside County and State of California, according to the NAGT. Additionally, Hilkey has led the high school's Solar Boat Team, which designs, builds and races a 16-foot solar powered boat, from the 28th to the 5th place title out of 40 Southern California area high schools, and to 1st place in the two-county region; Hilkey has also established a MESA (Math, Engineering, Science and Achievement) club, where he oversees students building robots and bridges to compete at the University of California, Riverside. Often using technology to his advantage, showing demonstration videos uploaded to the Internet and using various projectors in his daily teaching, Hilkey said he's always striving to make the experience a fun one. "I'm a noisy teacher," as he described himself. "I do a lot of demonstrations. If the teacher likes it, that's the most rewarding part," he said, "because kids know, if a teacher is interested in something then it's not just another lesson. If a teacher is excited about the lesson, the kids feel that. If you do something you enjoy and find exciting, the kids will lock into it." Often, Hilkey explained, he presents lessons in ways that make it easy for his students to apply to real life. One lesson plan he does with his classes is building a to-scale model of the universe on the high school's football field. "On a football field in a scale model, the sun is the size of your thumb and you can't even see Pluto. The kids go, 'I never knew.' They don't see accurate scale models in books. In class we make floods, and moon craters and we light fires. When you can do that in a controlled environment, the kids are sucked in; they're interested," he said. Currently, his students are predicting the weather each day and are documenting the earth's movement - San Jacinto sits near three fault zones and experiences anywhere from nine to twenty earthquakes daily. "Science is kinda cool," Hilkey expressed cheekily. "And this way we're applying it to real life."