Making It Work

EVERYONE PITCHES IN DURING A YEAR NO ONE WILL EVER FORGET.

—By Brendan J. O’Brien

Senior Roger Lofquist glances at his notes before crossing the courtyard and approaching his next date. It’s September, sunny, and Sarah Turek’s AP Biology students are outside for class. The activity: Cell Organelle Speed Dating.

The goal is to help students in one of Prairie’s most popular AP classes understand the structure and function of eukaryotic organelles – the subcellular structures responsible for performing tasks in our cells – by having each person role-play a different organelle while seeking out their perfect match.

As if dating wasn’t confusing enough already.

Roger is a mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, a fact hinted at by the Duracell batteries taped to his chest. Junior Maddie Dreifurst, the vacuole, a membrane containing fluid, wears an Ice Mountain bottle around her neck. Senior Finn Peterson, the cell wall, walks around in a cardboard box.

The main lesson here: organelles operate better when working together.

Consider it an unorthodox lesson rooted in ingenuity and necessity, with just the right amount of humor. In a year where teachers and students are pushed to their limits, these are the forces that keep Prairie learning in-person. “The first semester of AP Bio actually offered itself nicely for the adjustments we made to teach safely during the pandemic,” said Turek. “We tweaked labs so they could be completed individually. We even did microscope work using cell phone adapters fitted to the ocular lens of the scope, keeping faces off the microscopes by viewing our specimen on phone cameras.”

Already known for thinking outside the box, this year Turek and her fellow teachers have found themselves needing to be even more inventive...and patient.

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the Johnson Athletic Center, Prairie’s sports hub which this year doubles as a Middle School wing. In August, like the Wind Point geese in fall, Prairie’s 5th and 6th grades migrated, loading up desks and posters, projectors and books, to help create more space and observe strict grade-level silos.

Kelly Christensen now teaches Math in a dance studio. Dr. Gardner Seawright conducts Social Studies in the foyer where fans once purchased nachos. It has been trying and emotional and weird and inspiring.

MAKING IT WORK

“I will say, I was worried about the noise level,” says Ali Gasser, Middle School English Teacher. “Some days are more challenging than others, but we’re making it work. With the seasonal change, we notice the sun shines on us at different times of day, so kids have to adjust where they are sitting, but that’s working okay, too!”

Making it work. Without question, this is Prairie’s biggest accomplishment.

And everyone is pitching in.

Unable to invite university admission officers to campus, Prairie’s College Counseling Department – like the rest of the world – has turned to Zoom, scheduling some fifty different virtual visits so seniors can still learn about schools all across the country.

Fall Fest, a beloved tradition held over Homecoming weekend, was turned into a socially-distanced Pumpkin Walk thanks to the work of the Admission Department and Parents of Prairie (POP).

Morning Meeting, a sacrosanct fifteen minutes where Middle and Upper School students fill the Student Research Center and Upper School Commons for daily announcements, now happens online. Early School students work hard to keep masks up. Lunch, all across campus, is eaten in classrooms, everyone facing forward in socially-distanced desks.

Students miss the normalcy of co-curricular activities. Parents miss the community of coming together. Teachers miss seeing the smiles under their students’ masks.

But, classes are in session. Relationships are growing. Memories are being made.

Has the 2020-21 year been perfect? Hardly. But the school has continued creating a space where students feel safe and supported.

And on virtually every level – even a cellular one – there is nothing more important than that.

A version of this story originally appeared in The Racine Journal Times.