Shelly L. Miller
Associate Professor
Mechanical Engineering
University of Colorado Boulder
427 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0427
303-492-0587
shelly.miller@colorado.edu
I am an engineer and a dancer – an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering and
Environmental Engineering, and a devoted dancer of the 5Rhythms™ for the past 10 years. The
5Rhythms™ is a movement meditation practice developed by Gabrielle Roth in the 1960s. I was
first introduced to this practice in1997 when my dance teacher Melissa Michaels taught a
5Rhythms™ workshop on the CU campus. Fundamental to the practice is the idea that
everything and everyone moves in waves, patterns, and rhythms. Roth describes the practice as a
soul journey, and says that by moving the body, releasing the heart, and freeing the mind, one
can connect to the essence of the soul, the source of inspiration in which an individual has
unlimited possibility and potential. The 5Rhythms™ guide the dancer through 5 different ways
of moving, with each rhythm being a gateway to characteristics of your self. The rhythms are
flowing (grounded), staccato (directed), chaos (freedom), lyrical (joyful) and stillness
(compassionate), and when danced in sequence are known as a wave. Benefits of this practice
include self-confidence, creativity, relaxation, and self-awareness.
Sometimes I feel as though I live in two separate worlds. My dance friends can hardly
believe I am an engineer and my engineering colleagues and students comment often how I don’t
fit the regular stereotype of an engineering professor. I have for years tried to figure out how to
integrate my two worlds, bring them closer together. One thing I have experienced is bringing
engineers to the dance studio. I’ve danced with and mentored an engineering student from CU in
the 5Rhythms™ work as part of an apprentice program developed and led by Melissa Michaels.
Currently I am working with the Women in Engineering Program to offer my dance classes to
women engineers. Could I bring the dance into my classroom? I am still unclear if this will ever
be doable, but I contemplate it often.
I recently met a colleague who teaches Materials Engineering at CalPoly San Luis Obispo
and who is also a dancer. As a result of his connections to both ballet and engineering, he has
developed a new teaching paradigm that he has both published and applies in his classroom
(London and Deyo, 2005, 2006). When I recently talked with Dr. London on the phone, I asked
him why he developed these new ideas and he shared with me that is was because he wanted to
bring his two worlds, two passions closer together. He is also currently publishing a book
describing his innovative teaching methods.
I am proposing to investigate a paradigm shift in the way I teach traditional engineering
courses, by organizing my classroom activities around the 5Rhythms™model, in which every
class period goes through each of the rhythms. I hypothesize that a classroom structure that
follows a wave, not through dance movements, but through activities that compliment the
components of the wave, will result in an experience that motivates students to come to class, to
learn, and to enjoy the learning process at a whole new level. Additionally it will allow me to
become a more effective teacher because I will be teaching according to my true nature
incorporating all of my gifts.
Currently I envision the first 5 minutes of the class focused on some activity that allows the
student time to settle and ground their energy (flowing). Activities such as reflective journaling,
writing a paragraph summarizing questions they have about the course material, or even a 5-
minute meditation could be a flowing-based activity. Next the class would shift into staccato,
becoming directed and focused on the material of the day, with the professor delivering
important information to the students. Following this 15-minute period of focused lecturing, the
class would break into small groups to work on activities. This 25-minute period of the class
would be in the chaos rhythm, since the energy would be going in all different directions and the
noise in the classroom would be elevated. In this period the student would wrestle with the
previously presented material, working problems, posing questions to each other, and planning
for projects, etc. The final 5 minutes of the class would end in lyrical/stillness with the students
writing a brief summary of what they learned and what they need to focus on learning for next
period. I could also envision playing a short piece of music here to help shift the energy and
provide a transition for the class to move onto their next engagement.
This project would occur in 2 phases: (1) planning and literature review, and (2) classroom
implementation. During phase 1, the literature will be explored for teaching tools that fit within
the 5Rhythm™ model, particularly for those that fit within the chaos phase such as the
interactive engagement practices I propose to use. Planning will include developing assessment
tools and engaging with my PTLC coaches. During phase 2, to better understand the impact of
the following classroom rhythms, I would like to investigate these ideas when I teach a large
traditional lecture-based class, for example Thermodynamics II. This class typically has around
100 students enrolled and is taught in the spring semester. I would like to teach two sections of
this course, using my new ideas in one section and traditional methods in the other. Human
subjects approval would need to be obtained for this project. All students involved in the
rhythms based class would need to sign a consent form and agree to participate. Research
assessment methods could include diaries in which each participant receives a large note pad to
write or draw anything relevant to the research; a quantitative questionnaire to be developed for
this research project that would assess the impact of the class organization and atmosphere on the
students; peer pair interviews in which participants interview each other using a few questions
about what is working and what could be improved; three separate focus groups to gain more indepth
information and the classroom experience.
A main motivation for proposing this idea is to enhance and improve the classroom
experience. I would like for the students to come to class because they look forward to it, they
enjoy it, and feel it is worth their time. I envision providing students a learning environment that
follows the natural rhythms of life, allowing them to engage all their senses and actively
learning. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to teachers; they must talk
about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, apply it to their daily
lives (Chickering and Gamson, 1987).
I see a connection between following the rhythms of the classroom and Felder learning
styles. According to the Felder-Silverman model, students preferentially take in and process
information in different ways: by seeing and hearing, reflecting and acting, etc. (Felder and
Silverman, 1988). When differences occur between learning styles of students in a class and the
teaching style of the professor, the students may become bored and inattentive in class, do poorly
on tests, or get discouraged about the courses, the curriculum, and themselves. Professors who
experience unresponsive classes know something is not working. I have experienced this
situation at times and have wondered what I might do to serve my students and my profession
better. To overcome these problems, it is often recommended that professors should use a variety
of instructional methods. I hypothesize that organizing the class based on the 5Rhythms™ will
incorporate naturally a balance of teaching methods and is in harmony with the Felder learning
styles.
I’d like to investigate these ideas with the support of the PTLC. I have been struggling with
envisioning innovative ways to teach engineering. I deeply want to improve my teaching by
infusing my classroom with my passions and individual gifts. I would appreciate the insight and
support of the great teachers at the University of Colorado and know that their wisdom would
help me focus and develop these ideas of mine further to the betterment of the students in my
class. I envision using the funds from this grant to fund a student to help me organize my
research tools and analyze the data and help to run the extra class section that I propose to teach.
Very little has been published with regards to research studies of the impact of the
5Rhythms™, and only one study has investigated applying it to non-dance environments. I think
there is a large potential for rigorous educational study of the 5Rhythms™ ideas at the university
level, and specifically engineering. I plan to disseminate this work starting with the
ASEE/ISEEE Frontiers in Education Conferences. I would be very interested in publishing a
paper based on this work in the Journal of Engineering Education, if appropriate. Additionally I
would love to follow up this work with an NSF undergraduate engineering education proposal.
Finally, I am very willing to attend any required meetings, and to serve as a coach in the future.
References
1. A.W. Chickering and Z. F. Gamson, "Seven Principles for Good Practice," AAHE Bulletin 39: 3-7, March
1987.
2. R.M. Felder and L.K. Silverman, "Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering Education," Engr.
Education, 78(7), 674-681 (1988). The article that originally defined the Felder-Silverman model and
identified teaching practices that should meet the needs of students with the full spectrum of styles. The
paper is preceded by a 2002 preface that states and explains changes in the model that have been made
since 1988.
3. B. London and L. Deyo, “Work in progress: the five basic “positions” of engineering”, 35th ASEE/IEEE
Frontiers in Education Conference, Indianapolis, IN, Oct 19-22, 2005.
4. B. London and L. Deyo, “The ballet model in engineering classes – what works, what doesn’t, and what’s
new”, 36th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, San Diego, CA, Oct 28-31, 2006.
5. A.M. Hogya, “5Rhythms™ in the Workplace: Exploring Movement as a Corporate Training Approach”,
M.A. Thesis, Masters of Arts in Leadership and Training, Royal Roads University, British Columbia,
Canada in Leadership and Training, Royal Roads University, British Columbia, Canada
