Teacher Spotlight

Spotlight Teachers will be chosen by North Central Iowa Ag in the Classroom staff and highlighted every three months on our website.

Melanie Marreel

Melanie Marreel, a 4th-grade teacher at Clear Creek Elementary School in Clear Lake, is our Spotlight Teacher for this quarter. 

“I've enjoyed working with Melanie for many years,” says Brenda Mormann, NCI AITC program director. “I am always impressed with her love for her students and her passion for teaching. She is positive, enthusiastic and innovative in her classroom, always looking for new content and resources to keep her students interested and engaged. She is truly an advocate for agriculture and I appreciate her ongoing support of North Central Iowa Ag in the Classroom and her involvement in our programs.” 

Melanie believes that teaching agriculture to her students is so important because “EVERYTHING necessary for life can be traced back to the roots of agriculture.” She goes on to say that, “Our young students can understand the concept that the food they eat was produced on farms, and that the production of this food is a complex process. Students also need to be aware of how their clothes can also be traced back to the crops raised by our precious farmers.  Finally, students need to know that even transportation and fuel is an important agricultural commodity.  I try to impress upon my students these three F's - Food, Fiber and Fuel, and that most everything we use every day has its roots in agriculture.”  

When asked what she likes about her school’s partnership with NCI AITC, Melanie says, “NCI AITC is a wonderful resource for our school in so many ways! They have provided many, many copies of the various "My Family's Farm" books, along with the corresponding lessons. They have an awesome website that can be used as a resource for hundreds of lessons on a variety of topics. Our Clear Creek Elementary school also participates in "Ag Week" every January when the amazing team of ag educators come into our classrooms to lead engaging lessons. NCI AITC also encourages us to apply for the IALF Ag Grants of $250 in order to purchase materials to teach about ag in our classrooms. I can't stress enough how wonderful the NCI AITC team has been in their level of support for teachers!”

Besides participating in the Ag Week program, Melanie also ties math and science concepts back to agriculture on a regular basis in her classroom. She also discusses different occupations that relate to agriculture with her students and how those jobs relate back to the subjects they study in school.  

A strong tie to agriculture is evident in a science unit she teaches called, “Energy: Conversion.” During this unit, she utilizes many of the resources provided by NCI AITC on Wind Energy so her students can use them to write their research reports. 

“Everything we teach can truly be taught through the lens of AGRICULTURE!”