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Schools Integrate Dance Into Core Academics

Second grader Arielle Datnoff dances with classmates during a lesson on photosynthesis at Fort Garrison Elementary.

—Christopher Powers/Education Week

The Infusion of the Arts Appears to be Gaining a Stronger Foothold at a Time When Advocates Are Struggling to Ensure Time and Support for Their Disciplines

Pikesville, Md.

Photosynthesis may be an unlikely topic to inspire an opera or ballet, but in a 2nd grade classroom here recently, the children were asked to use dance to help them learn about that process.

“Do you think you’re ready to use your whole body?” teacher Katie Wright-Sabbatino asked near the start of the lesson, which featured learning objectives in both science and dance.

Small groups of pupils in this class at Fort Garrison Elementary School brainstormed to come up with dance movements to convey elements of photosynthesis, including water, sunlight, carbon dioxide, and chlorophyll. They leaned, they reached, they flowed,...