Student name:

Leila E.
Project #: (please use the project # that youve been using for this project throughout this
process)
1
Working version of project title (try to be creative while somewhat descriptive in your
project title)
Dance and Physical Education: A New Way to Enjoy Exercise
****Rationale: In 1-2 sentences, describe why you made the decision to pursue this project
and shelve the other one.
I feel that dance is not present enough in this society. As child obesity is becoming amore
common issue, dance could be a key to encouraging kids to exercise. Dance can be a great
way for kids to become healthier by moving, it can be used as a tool to increase
interaction between girls and boys, and it can be an outlet for emotional stress. The great
part about dance is that there is not just one kind, and every student can find the dance
style that fulfills their emotional needs and pushes their physical boundaries. The
problem is about access and resources. Since every student is required to take physical
education classes, why not reshape those classes and incorporate more dance into them?

Research Proposal--FINAL draft

1. State the essential question
How can dance have an impact on the life of an individual?
2.

State the primary research question

How can I show the audience that dance does, can and will have an impact on their life in a
way that they are encouraged to become immersed or involved in the world of dance?
How can we reshape the way students are taught about exercising in a way that they are both
encouraged and enjoy exercise?
3.
State the secondary research questions you have (make sure these are fairly
comprehensive and extensive).
What is dance?
What kinds of styles of dance are there?

The Gym classes:

Do the students enjoy gym class?
Do they ever get bored of gym class?
What kinds of things would they like to do?
Would they be interested to do different styles of dance?
Would the teachers be willing to learn about different styles of dance to teach their
students? (In a way just like teacher development)
Gym Teachers
Do they do teacher development?
Does the administration ask about what ways they can improve the gym classes?
Does the administration ever sit in on gym classes to see how they are run?
Would you be interested in learning about the different styles of dance?
What roadblocks could you see coming up trying to teach the students about different
styles of dance?
Children:
How often do you exercise?
How do you exercise?
Are you self-motivated to exercise?
Do you find exercising fun?
If you could, how else would you exercise?
Do you usually only exercise and get physical movement during gym class?
What do you usually do during gym?
Would you say dancing is a type of physical exercise?
What kinds of dances do you know exist?
If you could, would you change the types of things you do in gym class? What types of
activities would you add or take away?
Do your parents know what kinds of exercise you do in gym?
Parents:
Has or does your child ever/still dance?
Do your children have physical education classes?
What is their challenge/struggle (disability, very hyper, etc.)?
Do you know what kinds of activities your children do in gym class?
How would you perceive dancing as a physical exercise?
What is your initial reaction to hearing that your son or daughter may learn different
types of dances in gym class?
If the system changed a bit, would you be opposed to your children learning different
types of dance in gym classes if they were to replace some activities like kickball
and/or basketball every so often?
What other activities had they tried to help with their challenges? Did they stick to
them? Why? Why not?

The Child and Dance:

What do you think about dance? Why do think this way?
What is it?
Do you know of any different dance styles?
What is the least physical dance style?
Have you ever participated in dance?
Do you think ballet could ever pertain to you? Why? Why not?
Have you ever seen a ballet?
Have you ever participated in ballet? why have you not participated in X, or Y?
If it were available to you, would you want to see different shows of dance rather than
a movie? What if a dance show was cheaper than a movie ticket?
The Dancer:
What is so special about what you do? Why do you pursue it?
What does it offer to an individual?
Why should anyone care about it?
Is dance restricted to an individual group? Economically? Socially?
Why do you dance?
What is the most common misconception/preconceived notions about dance that you
hear?
What would you change about the connection between dance and audience? dance and
any individual?
After comparing dance classes to gym classes:
Which one did you enjoy more?
Which one made you feel tired?
Which one was more boring?
Which one would you want to do again?
Would you want to learn different styles of dance?
Professional Company/Dancer
What does RETHINK BALLET mean? (Boston Ballet)
What stigmas do you feel are present against the ballet world? (male/female)
What views would you like to see change?
How do you suppose people should be informed about ballet?
How did you get started in dance?

does the body feel better, stronger, or more confident when it does dance more so than
regular exercise?

4.
Description of what the final product will look like. (Be sure that you are very
thorough here. Take us through the entire process from now until the final product. If it

would be helpful to you, number the steps and proceed through them through and
including your final product. In short: you MUST describe the process here. This is
vital to the approval process on your research proposal.)
-

Wk

Week of

What I am planning to accomplish during that

week

11/3/14

Come up with Contacts

begin to gather essays, books on physical education
structure, how to determine physicality of pe
curriculum, how prevalent dance is in public schools,

#
-

1 -

2 -

11/10/14

3 -

11/17/14

4 -

11/24/14 (Thank
sgiving week)

5 -

Make a list of contacts and dates

Contacts for different types of dance
Contacts for BPS admin
Continue reading of novels, essays
Develop interview questions: Gym Teachers, BPS
Admin, Zakiya Thomas, middle school and high
school students
Research other public schools physical education
curriculum
Make a list of contacts!!!

Develop survey questions for students (by grade,

gender, in the gym, regular student)
Develop structure of interviews/videography
begin planning out outline of documentation (where
I will be speaking in the talk/showing
interviews/data) and how documentary will relate
this info
Contact Tufts University Zero Obesity project

Run ideas by BLS Admin, Gym Teachers,

Begin to develop research questions (The dancer, the

individual, and indirect and direct participants in
dance)
Contact BB PR/Executive Director/Community
Outreach
Contact different people within the administration
Continue reading of novels

12/1/14

in public schools and physical education

test run survey and interview questions

6 -

12/8/14

-Finalize approval for project and research by gym

teachers, BLS Admin teachers, parent permission
(slips)
- Begin talking to BLS
students/teachers/parents/gym teachers about dance
(CONTINUE READINGS)
Formulate calendar for videoing gym classes

7 -

12/15/14

- Plan for expected downfalls and backup plans

plan interviews for During or After December Break

8 -

12/22/14
Dec break

- Finalize surveys,

12/29/14
Dec break

- Finalize videography plans, survey questions, study

pursuits,

-Survey and video and interview

9 -

1 0

1/5/15

1
1

1/12/15

1 2

1/19/15

-Survey and video and interview

Edit interview footage
edit footage

1 3

1/26/15

Continue to edit interview/dance footage

-Survey and video and interview

1 4

2/2/15

-Begin developing tentative talk outline

-Ramp, hook, points of engagement, buckets, ending
story,
-develop potential roadblocks in presentation

term 2 ends on 1/16/15

-Review data
-Survey and video and interview

1 5

2/9/15

Time used for potential roadblocks, what am I

missing what does not make sense, is the data
showing the signs that I wanted it to show
Continued editing of footage

1 6 -

2/16/15
Feb break

If necessary, gather more interviews

More defined structure of CapstoneTalk

1 7

2/23/15

-Finalized plan for CapstoneTalk

Edit footage from documentation of lab
-Finalized infographics for BLS survey/interview

1 8

3/2/15

-Review Infographics, documentary snippets,

finalized plan/prospective outlay of CapstoneTalk

1 9

3/9/15

-Begin Practicing Presentation

-Edit CapstoneTalk as see fit

2 0

3/16/15

-Continue Practicing Presenting

-Edit CapstoneTalk as see fit

2 1

3/23/15

-Continue Practicing talk, Expanding potential

questions
-CapstoneTalk should be strengthened by this final
deadline

23

3/30/15

DEADLINE FOR FINAL PROJECT

term 3 ends on 4/2/15

5.
State how this research will advance the frontiers of knowledge and/or matter
and be significant in a meaningful way.
1. Encourage people to change any preconceived notions about dance
2. Possible show that exercising can be fun if it is done in different ways
3. Show that dance overall can have a positive impact on anyones life in multiple
different ways
6.

State anticipated potential pitfalls or problems of this research effort

1. Students/gym teachers/faculty will not be accommodating to work with me on this
project
2. BLS Students will be unaccommodating will not provide enough information with
given survey questions Make sure to test run them a couple of times!
3. People may not want to be interviewed or there may be complications (i.e. children
with down syndrome, their parents, privacy laws, videography permission)
4. Parents/children volunteers may not wish to participate in, BPS admin may not want to
comment or discuss physical education

7.
State your a tentative plan to locate and review the literature related to your
project. This includes printed/published sources and online sources. [The research
strategy, part #1]

1. Find books that explain the basics of physicality between dance and regular gym
classes so that I can have a foundation in psychology and the specific terms within the
field Ill use WorldCat to find book availability and retrieve them in college
libraries, such as BU or Harvard
2. I will find articles in different databases; I have different friends attending different
universities who have given me access to their databases so I will find enhanced peerreviewed articles there
3. I may delve into books about dance if there are any on preconceived notions or the
effects it has on those who watch dance using google search to find books that relate
to the topics
8.
State a tentative plan for research and data collection. (Data collection can take
multiple forms--surveys, test groups, interviews, observations, etc etc. This will differ
from project to project. [The research strategy, part #2]
1. Gym classes from BLS: Students and teachers
1. Survey gym class with current physical education curriculum: What students like,
what they want to learn more of, do they feel like there is a gender bias in the types of
physical activity they do, reactions to possibly incorporating dance? Do they have
perceived notions of dance?
2. Conduct research: incorporating danceas physically demanding as regular gym
class? As fun? As challenging? Invigorating? Which would they want to do again? Do
they dance outside of school? Would they enjoy having more dance in gym classes?
2. Interview different people who dance: participants/teachers
1. different styles of dance: why do they do it?
2. is there a stigma or lack of understanding/appreciating of dance?
3. what would they want to address to the audience who do not believe dance is a
physical activity?
4. who does dance help? (interview a variety of people- down syndrome, little kids,
boys and girls city dance, bb professionals, Harvard dance students, bboy dancers,
chinese dance, yoga, ballroom)
3. Interview BLS Admin/physical education: how do they develop pe curriculum, when
did they develop that? Have they ever asked the student body what types of physical
activity they enjoy? Do students have a say in what types of physical activity they engage
in? what is their definition of physical activity?

9.
State a tentative plan for research and data analysis and interpretation. [The
research strategy, part #3]
I hope to see
1. equal signs of physical activity, tiredness
2. increased signs of enjoyment
3. more interaction
4. total class engagement

9.
List the tools you will need to complete this effort. Identify (with an asterisk *)
tools that might currently be unavailable to you
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Gym class
Students
Different dance teachers
videographer/camcorder
microphones for interview
research background (books, essays,)
movie editing software (aka IMOVIE)

10.
Budget: what materials do you anticipate needing for your project? Please
provide a list with quantities and an approximate cost per item, along a brief description
of why you need this for your project.
Do some research and find out the actual cost of the items you need. Be as specific as you
can. Please add cells/rows if you need them. These are the budgets we will use to
determine the allocation of funds, so take time to be thorough and specific about this.

item
(please be
specific-brand, if
relevant,
and item #

quantit cost per

y of
item
this
item

retailer where you

want to purchase
this (and the source
of your price)

why you need this item for

your project

Books,
essays,
novels

TBD

$25+

various internet sites

just in case some information

that I may need is not in a
library and would require
purchasing for any reason

Paying for
teachers

TBD

??

Various professionals

This is added incase I would

have to pay for different dance
teachers to teach different styles
of dance to students/gym
teachers

11.
Bibliography- early draft. This bibliography must include at least 5 books, 5
scholarly journal articles, 5 websites, and least one potential source who you might
interview. Use proper bibliographic citation (MLA or APA format; your choice). You
are welcome to use EasyBib or refer to the formatting template created by Purdue
University: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ Explain why you anticipate (at this
point) that these sources would be relevant.

Beving, Sue. Ballet Allies with Schools. The Washington Times 25 Sept. 1999. Print
Bloemendal, Jan, Eversmann, Peter and Strietman. Drama, performance, and Debate: Theatre
and public opinion in the Early Modern Period. Lieden,Brill, 2012. Print
Carney, D. R., A. J. C. Cuddy, and A. J. Yap. "Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect
Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance." Psychological Science 21.10 (2010): 1363-368.
Web. 30 Oct. 2014. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20855902>.
Clarke, Mary and Crisp, Clement. Understanding Ballet. Harmony Books, 1976. Print.
Copeland, Roger, and Marshall, Cohen. What Is Dance? Readings in Theory and Critisim.
Oxford: Oxford UP, 1983. Print.
Cuddy, Amy J.C., Caroline A. Wilmuth, and Dana R. Carney. "The Benefit of Power Posing
Before a High-Stakes Social Evaluation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13027, September 2012.
David, Susan A, Ilona Boniwell, and Amanda C. Ayers. The Oxford Handbook of Happiness.
Oxford, U.K: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
Dunning, Jennifer. Seeking out Talent in Public Schools. New York Times 27 May 1991:
N13. Print.
Gilbert, Daniel Todd. Stumbling on Happiness. New York: A.A. Knopf, 2006. Print.
Hayden, Melissa. Dancer to Dancer: Advice for Todays Dancer. Anchor Press Doubleday,
1981. Print.
Knopfler, Vicki. "Demand for Dancing." Tribune Business News [Washington] 17 Dec. 2006:
1. Print.
Lourie, Suzanna K. "Economic Uncertainty, Decline of Fine Arts Could Threaten New York
City Ballet's Future with SPAC." The Saratogian : Serving the Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Region
(Saratogian.com). The Saratogian, 10 July 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Mendius, Richard, and Rick Hanson. Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of
Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. N.p.: Paw Prints, 2010. Print.
Pastorino, Ellen, and Susann Doyle-Portillo. What Is Psychology?: Essentials. 2nd ed.
Australia: Wadsworth Cengage, 2010. Print.
Perron, Wendy. Through the Eyes of A Dancer, Selected Writings. Wesleyan Univeristy Press,
2013. Print
Solway, Diane. "Dancing With the Audience: Dancing In Dialogue With the Audience."" New
York times 18 Dec. 1983: n. pag. Print.
"Top 4 Health Benefits of Dance." Dance - Dance Steps - Ballet - Jazz - Ballroom Dancing.

N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

Upper, Nancy. Ballet Dancers in Career Transition: Sixteen Success Stories. McFarland &Co.
2004. Print
Vaillant, George, MD, Mohammad Milad, PhD, Richard Schwartz, MD, and Jacqueline Olds,
MD. Singing in the Shower to Shaking in Your Boots: The Science of Emotion (2012): n. pag.
20 Mar. 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
<http://hms.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/assets/Sites/Longwood_Seminars/ScienceofEmotion
3.20.12.pdf>
Vranish, Jane. "Pittsburgh Public Schools Embrace Dance Program That Teaches Poise,
Camaraderie." Editorial. Pittsburg Post-Gazette 4 Jan. 2010: n. pag. Post-Gazette.com. Web.
20 Oct. 2014.
Wakin, Daniel J. "Ballerinas, Famed for Silence, Take New Approach: Talking." New York
times 17 Sept. 2010: A1. Print
Copeland, Roger, and Marshall, Cohen. What Is Dance? Readings in Theory and Critisim.
Oxford: Oxford UP, 1983. Print
Hayden, Melissa. Dancer to Dancer: Advise for Todays Dancer. Anchor Press Doubleday,
1981. Print.
Upper, Nancy. Ballet Dancers in Career Transition: Sixteen Success Stories. McFarland &Co.
2004. Print
Perron, Wendy. Through the Eyes of A Dancer, Selected Writings. Wesleyan Univeristy Press,
2013. Print
Bloemendal, Jan, Eversmann, Peter and Strietman. Drama, performance, and Debate: Theatre
and public opinion in the Early Modern Period. Lieden,Brill, 2012. Print
Clarke, Mary and Crisp, Clement. Understanding Ballet. Harmony Books, 1976. Print
Knopfler, Vicki. "Demand for Dancing." Tribune Business News [Washington] 17 Dec. 2006:
1. Print.
Solway, Diane. "Dancing With the Audience: Dancing In Dialogue With the Audience."" New
York times 18 Dec. 1983: n. pag. Print.
Macdonald, Koni. "Partnering:ballet School and Public School Perform Pas De Deux:
Edmonton Public Professional School of Ballet." ATA 1995: 30: 7-8. Print
Wakin, Daniel J. "Ballerinas, Famed for Silence, Take New Approach: Talking." New York
times 17 Sept. 2010: A1. Print
Beving, Sue. Ballet Allies with Schools. The Washington Times 25 Sept. 1999. Print

Dunning, Jennifer. Seeking out Talent in Public Schools. New York Times 27 May 1991:
N13. Print.
"Top 4 Health Benefits of Dance." Dance - Dance Steps - Ballet - Jazz - Ballroom Dancing.
N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Macaulay, Alastair. "Master Builders of Ballet's Future." New York Times. N.p., 17 Feb. 2008.
Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Lourie, Suzanna K. "Economic Uncertainty, Decline of Fine Arts Could Threaten New York
City Ballet's Future with SPAC." The Saratogian : Serving the Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Region
(Saratogian.com). The Saratogian, 10 July 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Vranish, Jane. "Pittsburgh Public Schools Embrace Dance Program That Teaches Poise,
Camaraderie." Editorial. Pittsburg Post-Gazette 4 Jan. 2010: n. pag. Post-Gazette.com. Web.
20 Oct. 2014.
"Integration with Dance/Mathematics." North Carolina Public Schools. N.p., n.d. Web. 20
Oct. 2014.
Knowles, Patricia, Rona Sande, and Peggy Schwartz. "Dance Education in American Public
Schools (Open Library)." Welcome to Open Library! (Open Library). N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct.
2014.