The Coolest ‘Nerd’ You’ll Ever Meet

MEET A SCIENCE TEACHER WHO HAS MADE HER SUBJECT THE TALK OF PRAIRIE’S UPPER SCHOOL

—By Rachel Shuster

“Everyone is a nerd about something.”

So says Jean Weaver, quite possibly the coolest “nerd” you will ever meet. Not only is Dr. Weaver a studied expert in the field of Chemistry, she is unwaveringly passionate about getting her students excited about the subject, too.

In addition to chairing the Science Department and teaching the highest-level courses offered at Prairie, Dr. Weaver heads what is unquestionably the most popular co-curricular activity in the Upper School: Science Olympiad. She started the club fifteen years ago, after hearing about the national program from fellow faculty members, and quickly grew to love the way it morphed even her quietest students into fierce competitors.

“I have wondered, why do I like this so much? I’m not a competitor, I’m just organizing!” Weaver chuckles. “I really like seeing kids get excited about learning about science; doing it from their own ambition, not because there’s a grade riding on it. I like seeing another avenue for kids to thrive in — if you’re not an athlete, a musician, or a stage person, this is something for you.”

Science Olympiad is based around competition, providing a chance for participants to put their newfound knowledge to the test. In a “normal” year, Prairie’s teams travel all over the state — and sometimes even to Illinois — for in-person tournaments, which operate similar to a track and field meet. Teams select pairs of members to participate in up to thirty events, each of which uses a preset challenge to test a different subset of scientific knowledge and skills: Ornithology, Circuit Lab, Forensics, and Boomilever are just a few. Events happen concurrently throughout the campus of the school hosting the tournament, which closes with an official awards ceremony.

When the pandemic hit last spring, it put an end to the 201920 season and threatened future contests. In a true spirit of collaboration, Dr. Weaver joined her fellow Wisconsin-area coaches to figure out how to adapt to their new circumstances. They presented their ideas to the National Science Olympiad Committee, and voilá: a new kind of Olympiad was born. This fall, students are participating in “Satellite” Olympiads, wherein they show up to their own school sites, link into a “command central” Zoom meeting along with their competitors, and compete live in their events via that link.

In November, Prairie competed in its first satellite meet along with twenty-eight other teams from across the country — including rivals from Marquette High School – from schools as far away as Pennsylvania, California, and North Dakota. Between its JV and Varsity squads, Prairie competed in twenty-two of the twenty-eight events — finishing in 8th place overall, and 3rd in the Small School category. Hawks won four events outright, in addition to nabbing ten 2nd place and four 3rd place finishes.

“We don’t usually compete against schools from that far away, but now you can go anywhere!” Weaver explains.

These new meets simulate much of the same experience for students. For Dr. Weaver, it means a lot more work on the front end: finding and preparing specific materials for different events, organizing logistics (will students need calculators? If so, what kind? Do they need goggles? How many?), and taking photos and videos during certain challenges to submit for virtual judging.

But Dr. Weaver is nothing short of devoted to her students’ academic pursuits. The way her face lights up when she talks about watching her team’s first meet, you’d think she had participated and won a medal herself.

“This allowed them to be back together, doing something fun,” she says. “A lot of people don’t think taking a test would be fun, but these kids are intellectuals. It’s this kind of hard work that brings them all together in the first place. They know they’re going to fail, but it’s safe to fail because they’re failing with their friends. And, the winner is the team that fails the least.”

Failing with your friends. Testing hypotheses, and retesting them if they don’t work. Learning and growing together. Spoken like a true scientist.