Capstone Project Proposal
Name of student: Vienna Cupples
Date: May 15th, 2020
Teacher: Ms.Haber
Block: 2-3
The Capstone strand I have chosen is the Service Oriented Stand and Research Strand
Proposed title for my Project Proposal: Volunteering with young dancers to improve their
dancing abilities while observing their habits and interactions with each other to investigating
how dancers of a young age may benefit from the activity and the environment.
Choose one of your stored inquiry questions from grade 9 or create a new inquiry question that
interests you for further research. It should be a question that connects with a purpose, passion
or personalized area of interest for you.
My inquiry question is:
How do activities such as dance, have an affect on children at a young age as they develop
skills necessary for growth, like communication and learning?
Rationale/context: Detail your reasons for choosing this inquiry question. Explain WHY you are
choosing to investigate this topic as a major area of focus. How does this area of inquiry connect
to your passion(s), purpose? Why is it of personal interest to you?
I have a passion for dancing, and love children as well. I was offered the opportunity at my
dance studio to help out with some baby ballet classes, as kids can be lots of work and easily
distracted, and I would be there to provide help for the teacher. I hope to work with children as
a future job, somewhat in the psychology field where I can investigate the minds of children
and why they act the way they do. By working with children in a dance environment, I am
getting the best of both. I also remember being younger and nervous to dance and
communicate with the other girls when I was new. I hope to help these children improve their
communication skills and make them a better dancer.
Background: What background knowledge/connections/prior learning do you have in this
area of inquiry?
Ever since grade 6 I have been in dance. I also love babysitting as well as monitoring younger
kids when I was in elementary school. I have taken 2 years of IB psychology and many of the
studies we have covered had to do with children, this could help me gain a better
understanding of how to approach these kids to get them to feel comfortable around me and
also get them to listen to me.
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Career connections: What is your intended career area at this point in time? What
connections does this inquiry question have to your life, academic and/ or career goals?
I am studying psychology at SFU to possibly become a teacher or some sort or a mentor for
children in a way, just as I was while volunteering. Either way I intend on working with
children. I am fascinated by the idea of how children think. A career that interests me is a child
psychologist or therapist. By spending time with children in a vulnerable setting such as
dancing, I can gain insight into each child's personality and how they interact, by getting to
know them and their learning styles. This could help me gain some skills in either of the career
areas i am thinking of currently, and give me experience with children while doing something I
love doing.
Interdisciplinary and core competencies connections: What subject areas and core
competencies will be connected with your project? Outline and explain the connections.
I will be communicating with the children, as I will need to introduce myself and make them
feel comfortable around me so that I am approachable when help is needed. I will also need to
be communicating my ideas and observations to my mentor/ teacher. I will be prepared to
collaborate and give my ideas as well as listen to their ideas when dancing. This is key for
improvement. In the social responsibility portion, I will be forming bonds and relationships with
my mentor and the kids I work with. As for creative thinking, I'll be thinking of new ideas for
each class, how to approach an idea to the younger age group so they will understand.
Capstone Presentation medium: select one or more project mediums you wish to use to
present your project. Outline and give details about how you will present your project once
completed. You may use a combination of mediums.
o Electronic portfolio: Prezi or PPT
o Physical portfolio
o Website
o imovie presentation
I constructed an electronic portfolio where I took notes of all my
observations, good days, bad days; almost like keeping a journal. I kept
track of my hours, my progress in forming relationships with the students,
as well as helping them out. I then used my observations from my volunteer
classes to help me conduct my research. I have completed my final project,
and will now construct a powerpoint which will include a summarized
version with key points of my research essay. This is what i will be
presenting during my Capstone conversation
Description of my Capstone project. Specific Project Details of the Capstone Project: what
will you research, create, study, produce, solve, investigate? What product will be produced
at the end of this project for evaluation. Write a one-page description outlining your
proposal.
For my capstone project, I am doing a service strand within my dance studio and a research
strand based off of observations i make at my classes and prior knowledge as well as
research. I am particularly excited about this because I am given the opportunity to work with
some adults that I look up to and have helped me grow as a person. This made my project a
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lot more enjoyable and rewarding. Considering all of the opportunities dance has given me, I
was excited to give back to the studio whilst doing two things i love; spending time with kids
and dancing. I attended baby/ regular ballet classes with teachers of my choice as many times
a week as I wish, which started in January. What I did day to day depended on the teachers
lesson plan, which was often up in the air and was up to the teacher I assisted. lt varied day to
day. I grew a connection with them, helping them become well rounded people and better
dancers overall. By the end of the project I hoped to have gained a better idea of how I
interact with children while doing something I am passionate about, because whatever i do
with my job, it will involve children. I wanted to test how children feel and interact with me and
vice versa. I also wanted to see how I have grown as a dancer and communicator and reflect
on this with my mentor/ teacher.
Project Design Team: who needs to be on your project design team to make this
project/research effective? To support your work? Outline the team and their roles.
My dance teacher(s) that I assisted in their classes were the ones that helped me out to make
this project effective. They gave me guiding questions, improvements for the following
classes, tips on communicating and bonding with them as well. The students were also a part
of this project, as I was working with them for the majority of the time.
Resources/ Technology/Skills: Make an assessment of the resources, technology and
skills you will need to be able to complete this project. What is your plan to be able to
access/learn all of the resources necessary to achieve completion of this project? Detail
your plans.
I used my laptop to take notes of key things I observe day to day. I also kept a regular
connection with the dance teacher(s) so I was able to reflect on each day and stay in touch. If
i needed to research anything, I asked my teacher, or gained information by searching it up
Mentors/Community Connections: What types of mentor(s)/community connections will
you need to help you complete your capstone project? How will your mentor(s) help you?
What is your plan to access the mentorship/community connections necessary for this
project?
My inspiration for this is someone that already knows me, and my strengths and weaknesses
as a dancer and person, can help me better understand my role as a teaching assistant. My
mentor is a dance teacher who I have never worked with before, whereas my dance teacher i
have been working with for the past 5 years and has been a very big influence in my life. My
plan was to communicate with both to gain different perspectives and clarity in class on my
daily role as her assistant. I was sure to ask her to communicate how she feels the class went
at the end of each day, and how I could improve.
Project limitations: What are some project limitations and potential obstacles that you foresee
that might affect progress with your Capstone Project?
With kids, you can never predict how they will act; they may like me, they may be super shy
and it may take a long time for them to warm up to me and actually feel comfortable looking at
me as a teacher rather than a stranger. The ideal result was for them to respect me, listen to
me and hear my suggestions for improvement and take them seriously. Of course I couldnt
expect this, as I was not sure how old the children I will be assisting were going to be. I had
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throught If the children were young, the possibility of them being distracted often and not
listening are very likely.
Other considerations: List and detail any other related information/ considerations about
your project that you feel should be included in your project proposal.
The classes I will be helping with did not start until after winter break, therefore before then I
continued to prepare, and make a game plan for everything
References: Provide a literature review or links for 5-10 references: research, videos, etc.
that offer some preliminary research you have done for your project that shows you are able
to access the key information that you will need to be able to complete this project/work.
Refer to my “Annotative Bibliography” assignment
Project Plan & Timeline: Plan the steps for your project with a timeline of when the work
needs to be done.
Complete the attached Capstone Project Action Plan or create your own timeline to
show steps and dates needed for completion.
Capstone Project Action Plan/Timeline
Project Title Volunteering with young dancers to improve their dancing abilities and observe
their habits
Capstone Service Strand/ Research strand
Strand
Design Team Ms Carly (teacher i will be assisting)
Members Ms Sarah (dance teacher i work with many hours every week on personal growth,
and someone i look up to in this field of interest)
Objective(s): Date of Completion:
To observe how young children behave around each other in Around end of March,
a controlled environment, and to increase their Beginning of April
communication skills, dancing skills, and learn about the
best ways to interact with children
Resources Required:
Psychology class notes (From Ms. Schweers)
Psychology videos
Beginners guide to teaching children dance
A laptop to record notes
Essential Skills Required:
Background knowledge about how children behave
Patience
Dance experience
Mentors/Community Connections:
I am volunteering my time to help my teachers out with young students, to further gain
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insight from someone other than their teacher and someone who is younger. I am going
to be working with them and creating a safe place for them to express themselves
however they chose within the studio and hopefully share some of my passions with
others. Also show my mentor how I have improved as a dancer and person.
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Develop Timeline for the overall Project:
Action Plan Steps:
What needs to Who will do this part? By when? Done:
be done? (add
rows as
needed)
-Sign up for classes to -I will be signing myself up -In a few weeks (the yes
attend as well as working it into my classes don't need
schedule volunteers until after winter
break) -Written November
25th
-Start attending the -Myself -Over the course of yes
classes and writing notes multiple months (From
January- April)
-Began attending Myself January 18th 2020 yes
volunteer classes
-Creating questions -Myself -Over the course of the Yes
based off of first two months
observations to help (January- February)
begin research
-Research background -Myself -Mid January/ Beginning Yes
information to help of February
communicate with
young dancers to
improve and help
assist the dance
teacher
-Begin research for -Myself -Beginning of March Yes
essay based on my
observations
-Complete research for -Myself -End of March yes
essay and begin
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piecing together and
organizing my
gathered info
-Begin research essay -Myself -End of march yes
(intro/ research)
-Complete research -Myelf -Beginning of April yes
portion of paper
-Complete discussion/ -Myelf -End of April Yes
conclusion of paper
-Complete citations for -Myself -Beginning of May yes
paper
-Complete final -Myself -Middle of May yes
presentation for
capstone conversation
in power point form
Other considerations:
Required check in dates: Students will refer to the list of published due dates which were
provided in September and are available on the class website.
