The Principia concert band will take us on a melodious journey “From Mozart to Gershwin” tomorrow. This end-of-year performance showcases the musicianship of fifth through twelfth graders. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. in Ridgway.

Saturday, May 4—District Track Meet

The School is hosting one of its largest sporting events ever—the MSHSAA District Track Meet, where both Class 1 and 2 schools will be combined for the first time. More than 1,000 people are expected on campus, and the Principia community is invited to support our Panthers—as well as the concession stand, which is being operated by the girls’ dorm as a fundraiser. Events begin at 9:30 a.m.

Friday, May 10—Evening of Theatre, Song, and Dance Offers Something for Everyone!

An adjustment to the previously announced schedule means even more variety for our audience tonight, as students from Middle and Upper School take the stage for the:

• Middle School Improv Performance

Students in the improvisation exploratory class are sure to have the audience in stitches. 7 p.m. in the Lower School Gym.

• Upper School Fine Arts Showcase

This evening’s performance will combine the Junior Monologues, singing by our seniors, and several dance numbers by the Upper School spring dance team. The performance starts at 8 p.m. in Ridgway, and should run until about 9.30 p.m. (Note: This is a CHANGE to the previously announced program.)

Saturday, May 11—Sectional Track Meet

The School hosts the MSHSAA Sectional Track and Field Meet, once again with both Class 1 and 2 schools competing. Come cheer once again, starting at 10.30 a.m., and enjoy goodies from the concession stand in support of the girls’ dorm’s fundraising efforts.

Saturday, May 11—Dance Concert*

*Note: This performance has been rescheduled to be part of the Upper School Fine Arts Showcase on Friday, May 10.

Monday, May 13–Thursday, May 16—Senior Project Presentations

At various times throughout the week, members of the Class of 2013 will present their senior projects, sharing their insights and learning. Check at the reception desk in the Lobby for a copy of the schedule.

Saturday, May 18—Campus Sing

Our annual celebration of another great year at the School will take place in Ridgway at 8.00 p.m., bringing together local and visiting families and students from every level. It’s an event not to be missed!

Sunday, May 19—Commencement

The big day finally arrives! We’ll be honoring our seniors on a job well done as they head off to new adventures. Doors open in McCalmont Gym for general seating at 1:15 p.m., and the ceremony begins at 2 p.m.

Attend senior capstone presentations. A schedule is available here.

Thursday, May 9
The President’s Forum, featuring a conversation with professor emeritus Dr. David Gibbs on “Principia’s Impact and Promise,” begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel. If you can’t attend in person, listen on Principia Internet Radio (PIR).

Friday, May 3
Graduating international students give their farewell speeches in Wanamaker Hall at 4:30 p.m.

The Performing Arts Abroad has returned from Europe and will give a performance at 8:00 p.m. in Wanamaker Hall.

Saturday, May 4
The Principia College choir, orchestra, and jazz band will give a concert in Davis Music Hall at 7 p.m.

Friday, May 10
This year’s awards ceremony recognizing students’ departmental and all-campus achievements begins at 10:30 a.m. in Cox Auditorium.

Don’t miss the baccalaureate ceremony featuring student speeches on Friday, May 10, at 8 p.m. You may also listen to them on PIR.

Saturday, May 11
Commencement exercises begin at 2 p.m. in Cox Auditorium.

During a remodeling project, Principia College facilities crew members hit a small, hard, white chunk while digging a manhole. Realizing they had found something unusual, they took it to Principia science faculty, who, along with experts from the Illinois State Museum, identified it as a mammoth tooth. Principia’s mammoth was later named “Benny” in honor of the backhoe operator on the crew that made the discovery.

Benny had been buried within several yards of Rackham Court for about 17,500 years, submerged in loess (wind-blown silt) derived from glacial outwash deposits left behind in the waning days of the Ice Age. In his prime, he would have measured about 11 feet tall at the shoulder, weighed approximately six tons, and eaten 400 pounds of vegetation each day. His enormous tusks, which were eventually excavated, are 6.5 feet long.

From 2002–2012, Principia College students excavated the mammoth remains as part of a geology class taught by Dr. Janis Treworgy (C’76). Students learned and practiced a range of skills, including excavating with trowels and bamboo skewers, pedestaling bones in preparation for removal, mapping (using a grid system), wet sieving matrix (dirt) samples, and cleaning and consolidating skeletal elements.

The most exciting—and challenging—excavation event happened during the summer of 2005 when Treworgy, along with Principia staff and students, removed the skull block, a delicate procedure requiring tremendous care. Students have since worked on the skull block in the lab, revealing Benny’s articulated cranium, tusks, and upper teeth. Other significant skeletal elements that were excavated include both upper arm and leg bones, a lower arm and a lower leg bone, both shoulder blades, and a number of vertebrae and ribs.

Benny has been a wonderful ambassador for Principia. More than 9,000 visitors, including university students, school groups, girl and boy scout troops, geology clubs, and a variety of adult groups have toured the excavation site over the years. Scientists from other institutions have participated in the project, and Benny has been featured in major print, radio, and television news media, as well as scientific literature.

Eric Lines (C’08), who took Treworgy’s class on the mammoth, spoke at yesterday’s commemoration ceremony. “What I loved the most among all the theoretical learning was the chance to actually interact with the subject matter,” he said. “It was great that, after a lesson on the anatomy of an extinct animal, we got the chance to handle the very bones we were discussing.”

Treworgy shares Lines’s enthusiasm for the project. “It has been an opportunity of a lifetime for me, not only to be able to excavate a mammoth but to involve college students in the project,” she says. “Nearly all the field and lab work has been done by students, and they have done a great job. I love teaching with an experiential focus, so I will miss this project, but I will continue to give talks and tours of the lab in order to extend the educational benefits of the project. Benny is a gift to education that can keep on giving.”

Junior Abbie Steckler expresses boundless enthusiasm for the student-run group: “I love being part of Lazy Zipper so much!” she exclaims. “We spend a lot of time preparing for our shows by practicing improv exercises and doing team building. It’s so satisfying to watch the whole team progress and improve. Everyone is so dedicated, and there is no sense of ego.”

“Most team members have little or no theatre background, and it’s a great way to connect with a group who may not be friends otherwise,” explains senior Lila Morse. “Lazy Zipper is a light-hearted activity for students to explore acting.”

“We work together as a team to construct and polish a show,” adds senior Cameron Wells, who has been part of Lazy Zipper all four years at the College. “I’ve really enjoyed learning how to work better with others while on stage— and, of course, laughing a lot!”

With the help of science teacher Brad Warrick (US’90, C’94), the students note the various types of swifts, swallows, pelicans, and hawks. Later, as they clamber back on the bus, there’s some good-natured bantering about who has seen more of what kind of bird.

“I saw a new bird this morning,” one student gloats.

“Nyah, nyah, nyah—well, I’ve seen an American coot,” retorts another.

“I’m starting to dream about birds,” sighs a third.

“How do you tell the difference between a greater yellowlegs and a lesser yellowlegs?” asks a curious seventh grader.

“Mr. Warrick, if you see a cedar waxwing, will you take us to see it on Saturday?” pleads an eighth grader.

The course description for the ornithology class comes with a warning: “Be prepared for early morning bird walks!” But the prospect of having to be at school by 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday has not deterred these students—nor others who join these bird walks even though they’re not in the class. Currently, 27 seventh and eighth graders are enrolled in the two sections of the class. Students are expected to learn how to identify at least four new birds each day, and they have to know 20 different birdcalls.

Warrick’s objective “is to promote an excitement about science that develops skills of observation, data gathering, and analysis, as well as a general taxonomical understanding.” From this basis, he continues, “the students start to develop a deeper knowledge and enhance their scientific skills.”

They also enjoy developing their sense of competition, spurred by the requirement to record their sightings through a website called eBird. Launched in 2002 by Cornell University and the National Audubon Society, eBird essentially harnesses “crowdsourcing” to gather a rich database of bird distribution and abundance throughout the Americas and beyond.

An avid birder since being introduced to ornithology by former Upper School biology teacher Ted Munnecke (C’57), Warrick has studied birdlife in more than 30 countries. He is ranked in the top 10 in Missouri for the number of bird species sightings he has reported on eBird. Nearly as impressive, brothers Garrett (sixth grade) and Dylan (ninth grade) Sheets are also currently in the top 10. They have been birding with their parents for some years—and the goal of several students who are just being introduced to birds through Warrick’s class is to see if they can catch up.

Nafisi currently teaches aesthetics, culture, and literature as a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University. She studied in the U.S. in the 1970s and then taught at the University of Tehran. But in 1981 she was expelled for refusing to wear the mandatory Islamic veil. After going six years without a classroom, she taught at the Free Islamic University and held a fellowship at Oxford University, where she conducted a series of lectures on culture and the important role of Western literature and culture in Iran after the 1979 revolution. Nafisi returned to the United States in 1997, earning national respect and international recognition for advocating on behalf of Iran’s intellectuals and youth, especially young women.

Nafisi began her talk by describing her afternoon walk along the campus bluffs to get a feel for Principia’s campus. “As I looked across the Mississippi River, I was reminded of Mark Twain, one of my favorite American writers,” Nafisi said. “I especially love the character Huckleberry Finn because he took tremendous risks to preserve what his heart told him. This is what we all must do and what literature teaches us. We should continually question our own point of view and not fall into groupthink.”

Nafisi also spoke about immigrating to America from Iran after witnessing violence and oppression during the 1979 revolution as well as the unrelenting efforts of the new regime to oppress women, minorities, and culture. Even her own grandmother, Nafisi said, who had a very traditional view of religion, disagreed with the post-revolution practices. “She wore the veil her whole life yet strongly felt that wearing or not wearing the veil is a matter of choice, “Nafisi explained. “My grandmother was greatly troubled that authorities told others how to practice their Islamic faith and how to believe in God.”

But Iran isn’t the only nation that concerns Nafisi. “I worry that America has become a country afraid of confronting tough questions,” she said. “I’d like to start a national debate about who is going to bail out our children’s future because imagination and clear thought have ceased.”

For senior Clayton Harper, Nafisi’s warning bell rang loud and clear. “Her words remained in my thought long after she left campus,” he says. “Her plea for passion, imagination, and bravery is something that this world—and this campus—needs to hear. For me, it all boiled down to the passage she shared from Huck Finn. If we aren’t willing to risk our honor and salvation to uplift another person, then we’ll never understand what our principles are for.”

Finishing up her sophomore year at Upper School, Courtlyn has been volunteering regularly in our Preschool since she was a freshman. Coming in almost every week, she has coordinated with kindergarten teachers Linda Warner and Lori Lines to be an additional resource, helping children practice their developing skills in alphabet recognition, reading, and writing.

The highlight of Courtlyn’s work—both for her and the children—was “Literacy Night,” an evening of storytelling and literacy-related activities that she pioneered last year and held again in April. These events took extensive planning and preparation, as Courtlyn worked with a family friend in California to obtain donated books that the children could take home after the event, lined up volunteers from among her Upper School friends, and prepared activities and supplies for the hour-and-a-half program.

“She did a beautiful job bringing it all together for the evening,” observes Dorothy Halverson (C’85), head of Principia’s Early Childhood program. “It’s amazing to me how she organized all the volunteers.”

The thought and effort Courtlyn has put into this process form the core of her project for the Girl Scouts of the USA’s Gold Award, the organization’s highest award (equivalent to the Boy Scouts’ Eagle rank). A girl scout since first grade, Courtlyn submitted her project proposal in 2011, before heading off to Upper School as a boarder. Greatly impressed with Courtlyn’s project, her Girl Scout advisor has submitted an accompanying video (put together by a sophomore classmate) to the National Council as an example of a quality Gold Award project.

With changes in the kindergarten program and a busier schedule as a junior next year, Courtlyn will not be able to volunteer on a regular basis. “I’d love the concept to be sustainable, though,” she says, “because I really see value in it for the kids, especially in the character and communication skills they develop through the process.” Last week, Courtlyn made a presentation to both Lower School and Preschool teachers and librarians to share ideas about various literacy events, generating great interest in planning for the future.

The students are modeling a NASCAR pit crew, using tables and chairs instead of cars and tires. It’s all part of a workshop called “High Performance Teams” put on by the Leadership Institute. The students are discovering firsthand the characteristics of highly successful teams, such as clarity of purpose, defined roles, communication, and the need to involve each team member.

Earlier the students competed in a duct-tape relay, where the teams stood on two long strips of tape (sticky side up) and had to move in unison (see photo). It’s not all fun and games, however. Leadership Institute Director David Wold uses the activities to bring key concepts to life and make leadership and teamwork interesting and relevant.

At a workshop earlier this semester, the students engaged in a tug-of-war that started as a one-to-one contest, then two-on-two, then three-on-three, up to a team of eight. The exercise illustrated research showing that people tend to exert less effort in a team than on their own and often let up when others are available to share the load. As Wold says, “Talking about concepts like ‘social loafing’ and the ‘collective effort model’ is a lot less interesting than experiencing them in an activity. Exercises make ideas more engaging and memorable.”

Workshops this semester have centered on the theme of teamwork, which makes them highly relevant to student leaders. Participants include house presidents, student senators, team captains, resident assistants, and others who work in teams. Sophomore Marshall McCurties comments on the workshops’ value: “I’ve picked up really useful ways to assess teams and learned practical steps I can use to address issues. I look forward to applying them on the rugby pitch!”

By contrast, Laura Perry, who will be graduating soon, has found the workshops a useful lens for reviewing her years at Principia and the many leadership roles she held during that time. “Working with the Leadership Institute has helped me step back to identify what I’ve learned and tie it together,” she says.

Iraq: Ten Years of War, 2003–2013
Faculty: Janessa Gans Wilder
Live sessions meet Monday evenings, 7:30–8:30 p.m. CDT.

Sort out the lessons to be learned from the war in Iraq with Janessa Gans Wilder, a former CIA analyst in Iraq who later founded the Euphrates Institute to improve understanding between the West and Middle East.

Climate Change: The Science and Politics of Global Warming
Faculty: Pete Spotts
Live sessions meet Thursday evenings, 7:30–8:30 p.m. CDT.

Learn about scientists’ study of the climate system, and discuss the uses and abuses of their research with Pete Spotts, science reporter for The Christian Science Monitor.

Read full course descriptions and register today!