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Lifestyle

Like Charlie Brown on Halloween, Illinois got a rock, thanks to students at Pleasantdale Middle School in Burr Ridge — an official state rock.

You can thank Pleasantdale Middle School fifth graders for making sure Illinois had an official state rock. And you can also thank them for making sure coal was not chosen for said state rock.Yes, coal was in the running, according to now sixth grader Matej Naunov.Advertisement“One of our main reasons as to why coal was dropped was because you get coal on Christmas when you’re not good,” he said matter-of-factly.Pleasantdale teacher Jennifer Lauermann’s former students sat in the school’s music room recently, remembering their advocacy efforts to get a bill on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk designating a state rock, a goal they achieved as a group during the pandemic. The youths are now waiting for Pritzker’s signature to make dolostone as the official rock of the state of Illinois.AdvertisementPleasantdale Middle School teacher Jennifer Lauermann and her fifth grade students look over an assortment of rocks at Pleasantdale Middle School in Burr Ridge on May 20, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)Dolostone, one of the most common rocks in Illinois, provides valuable nutrients to the soil. It’s also a great building resource and comprises most of the bedrock of northern Illinois. Per student research, dolostone was the cause of a major mineral rush in Galena, Illinois, in the early 1800s, the site of one of the first large geologic expeditions in the nation.What started as a geology unit in Lauermann’s fifth-grade science class grew into a movement of sorts that spanned the entire Burr Ridge school, other school districts, geology professors, gem clubs, rock enthusiasts/collectors and geologists. And to think it all started years ago, when Lauermann said she had students wanting to name a state spider. But that fizzled.“It was because of that group years ago, that made me really look at our state symbols,” Lauermann said. Then during the 2020-21 school year, her fifth graders started talking about symbols and discovered Illinois didn’t have a rock.That got the group of 26 students thinking and researching. During their work, the group interviewed people who work in the field and sent out emails to local geology experts. Lauermann said the students welcomed their input because they didn’t want to choose the rock without the advice of experts. Lauermann said the selected rocks had to represent Illinois, which meant “it’s easily found in Illinois. And a lot of people use it,” said student Stephan Nikolic. The class started with 10 rocks and ultimately got it down to the final three — limestone, dolostone and sandstone.The class then split up into three groups representing each rock, and made a case for each one. The campaigning was fierce. Lauermann created a website for the school’s endeavor, with details about each rock and a ballot for voting. Students told their parents, parents told friends and so on. Lauermann said the youths wrote 150 letters to state legislators to get any one of them on board with the push for a state rock. Naunov said the act of writing, printing, folding and stuffing envelopes took up some of the fifth graders’ recess time.A dolostone rock is on display at Pleasantdale Middle School in Burr Ridge. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)Signage was posted throughout the school, urging school staff and students to vote. With a state bird, insect, food, mineral and dance, how could Illinois not have a state rock? While dolostone was the smallest group, Lauermann said, dolostone was the winner with over 1,300 votes (over 50% of the vote) from myriad Illinois locations, including Chicago, Kenilworth, Rockford, Galena and Carbondale.“We reached about 400 schools total,” Lauermann said. “The website had really colorful pictures and an essay to read. I don’t really know all the reasons why people voted dolostone, but many of them said they liked the way it looked. They liked that it’s underneath us, part of our bedrock. And I remember people said they liked dolostone because it’s in a lot of buildings. It’s very historical. It’s not a rock that we see everywhere. But it definitely represents Illinois.”U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove heard about the rock project and brought it to the floor of the House.Advertisement“We’ve been told that once it gets signed, we’ll know and we’ll all celebrate that they’re a part of history,” Lauermann said. “They will have that memory and I will too.”Lauermann said the students have already been recognized by the school board and when the state rock is official, she said the district superintendent wants to do some kind of rock monument or plaque. Lauermann added that parents have already expressed their gratitude for the project helping to lift kids up during the pandemic.Pleasantdale Principal Griffin Sonntag said the 19-year Pleasantdale teacher made lemonade out of lemons.“That’s the kind of teachers that we have here. She’s one of the best,” he said adding, “It’s great for the kids to see the fruits of their labor.”Lauermann agreed.“It was all about the research and the diligence,” Lauermann said. “You had to have a group of kids that really wanted something … if they didn’t want it, then it wouldn’t have happened. This was a very, very diligent, really interested motivated group of students that wanted this to work.”AdvertisementVenture into Lauermann’s class and you can see her growing rock collection on the wall. Current and former students often will find unique rocks and give them to her — an arrowhead that looks like it’s carved from coal, a crystal from Tasmania and natural copper all sit on her wall.Pleasantdale Middle School fifth graders look over an assortment of rocks at their school in Burr Ridge on May 20, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)Before the sixth graders left to take part in their current science class, looking at tornadoes by way of leaf blower, they were asked if they were fans of science. Everyone said, not so much, including Jackson Hawbecker. But the students all agreed that Lauermann made science fun.“Every year you just try to plant some little seed or interest in these kids,” Lauermann said. “And last year, we struggled. We came up with some innovative things in the school that tried to reach the kids, and that’s what this was.”Curious about other state symbols?:Penicillium rubens NRRL 1951 became the official state microbe of the state of Illinois in January 2022.The Illinois General Assembly named fluorite as the state mineral in 1965.Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich made popcorn the state’s official snack food in 2003.The Tully Monster, named after fossil hunter Francis Tully, was named the state’s official fossil in 1989. According to a paleontologist, a Tully Monster looks like a worm, a mollusk, an arthropod and a fish altogether.Former Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the pirogue, a type of canoe, into law as the official state artifact.The official state pie: pumpkin, as of 2015.And the official state amphibian, Eastern tiger salamander, and the official state reptile, the painted turtle, both were signed into law in 2005, effective in 2006.drockett@chicagotribune.com

Lifestyle

U. of C.’s Prototype for Success program seeks to grow diversity in STEM’s future leaders

The laughter and conversation at Hyde Park’s Polsky Center on a recent April evening was infectious. The boisterous scene centered on uncooked spaghetti, marshmallows and tape.More than two dozen University of Chicago freshmen were given a 10-minute challenge to build a tower with 20 sticks of spaghetti, and one yard of Scotch tape. When completed, the tower should stand on its own and be able to support one nondeformed marshmallow on top. The team with the tallest tower that could hold the marshmallow wins.AdvertisementThe group that contained River Forest resident, Gia Fisher, Johannesburg, South Africa resident Anqi Qu and Springfield, Missouri, resident, Emmett Reid won. They were all smiles after their brainstorming and collaborative session.“We ran into several problems along the way, had to think on our feet and make it up as we go,” Reid said. “Our ephemeral structure currently looks like it broke under its own weight, but that’s OK. It got the job done. We did not think this would work out, but it did.”AdvertisementThe challenge is just one exercise in the curriculum for the three-year extracurricular program Prototype for Success, which gives early and continued support to students interested in the intersection of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields and entrepreneurship. Open to incoming U. of C. freshmen, the program encourages applications from students of color and female students, both underrepresented populations in STEM fields.Prototype for Success is a partnership between the university’s Office of Career Advancement, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The program offers specialized workshops, funded internships and research/technical skill training. Throughout the program, participants receive career preparation assistance and mentoring from employers, entrepreneurs and experts within the partnering departments. Students are also introduced to Polsky’s Fabrication Lab, where they will design, build and pitch an object that would be useful to other first-year students. Prototype for Success’ curriculum and programming culminates in students’ senior year, where a capstone project and presentation is produced.Meredith Daw, associate vice president and executive director of U. of C.’s Office of Career Advancement, said the idea for the program stemmed from employers wanting this type of skill set and students who wanted to do something entrepreneurial but needed a scientific discipline lens. Daw said program participants were chosen through an application process, each person demonstrated interest in emerging technologies, entrepreneurial potential and interdisciplinary thinking on their college essays and were invited to apply.“One of the things that we really believe in the career office that underpins everything we do is learning by doing, giving students a chance to not just hear passively about a career field, but actually participate in a field,” Daw said. “They’re working in teams, trying to solve a problem. It’s all the things we’re looking for, as we think about having scientists who are also entrepreneurial. It’s all about helping students not just get to college and through, the real focus is on how do you make sure students graduate with great outcomes.”Dan Sachs, executive director of education and programs at the Polsky Center, says the program is less about creating the next Elon Musk or cranking out a bunch of startups and more about building successful human beings. He says the program is all about engaging students early on and fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in a way that has practical application they can apply to whatever field the student is interested in. Sachs calls the program a “seamless marriage between entrepreneurial thinking and business school training, and innovation and research at the university.”“Our goal is to develop concrete, consistent pathways for students who typically don’t see a lot of heroes that look like them in this space — to be able to take advantage of everything from networks to mentorship to internships and have that develop over time,” Sachs said. “The long-term hope and expectation is to build the next generation of leaders that look like the country, one that is diverse and based on equitable opportunity.”This inaugural cohort has been meeting in person for two-hour workshops since January. Participant Eliram Reyes-Powell is a molecular engineering major. He said he applied to Prototype for Success because he was interested in pharmaceutical industry patenting. Since the workshops have begun, he’s even more motivated. His U. of C. classes are theoretical, while these sessions show him the many career options and pathways within science.Elizabeth Koprucki, assistant director at Fab Lab and Design, told student participants the program is all about building to learn. She encourages them to make crappy things and learn from them. When it comes to this maker space, it’s all about learning by failing.AdvertisementUniversity of Chicago first-year students Quadri Durojaiye, from left, Antonio Castano, Max Reisman, Bella Alfaro and Blake Harris present a prototype of a cellphone case that can store things like an identification card. Teams of freshmen who were given an assignment to make something that improves the lives of first-year students presented their final projects at the Harper Center on campus on May 26, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)University of Chicago freshman Bella Alfaro holds a prototype of a cellphone case that can store things like an identification card as students present their final projects. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)“It’s a great program,” said Osinachi Nwosu, a computer science major. “It really speaks to the fact that you can major in anything you want and after college, you might think there’s only one pathway for your specific major but going through this program, you learn more about how within a major, within a field, you can create anything and that creation is pretty cool.”Fisher, Qu and Reid are all part of the Class of 2025. Reid wants to make a positive impact doing something he finds really interesting. Fisher is interested in making sure medical devices and tools can fit all kinds of hands. Qu thought having the background knowledge and the skills that Prototype for Success provides will help her be able to make something if an idea were to come to her at some point.Daw said there are many on campus looking at trends and adjusting career programming accordingly to make sure students are facing a future prepared, including those in her office. Daw said given the university’s institutional knowledge, her team is focused on creating hubs with interdisciplinary approaches. Prototype for Success is the first, but two more early engagement programs will launch this summer — one focused on climate concerns, the other focused on data science and public policy, bringing together the U. of C. UChicago Data Science Institute and the Harris School of Public Policy.As for how Prototype for Success will measure its success? Daw said in several different ways, including the number of those who remain in the sciences, those who branch out as entrepreneurs and the number of participants who say they are satisfied, supported and connected to each other upon completion.“They’re gaining transferable skills, building out a network … programs like these are helping them understand what they’re interested in doing and ultimately, they’re becoming more competitive in the marketplace,” Daw said. “It’s really important that all these students have great experiences throughout the academic year and in the summer for career opportunities — all of those things together equal success.”drockett@chicagotribune.com