Since I started my research, I have learned a lot about my topic. I learned about title IX, a law in the constitution that states "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." I have also learned about an organization that goes to different high schools and universities to conduct searches on their sports programs. Often times, they find that universities have been listing male athletes as women in an attempt to even out the numbers and they also will list female athletes more than once. The organization often times allows the schools to straighten themselves out but if they don't, they will take matters into their own hands. At one school, they did not even have a locker room for the female athletes, they had to change in their cars or in a shed.
Sports. When that word comes to mind, so many of us instantly think of the MLB or the NFL. Why is that? Why is it that guy's sports are considered superior to girl's sports? That is the question I would like to answer in my project. I have a personal connection to this topic because I play softball at Rutland High School and the guy's baseball team is always telling the softball team how much less "intense" our sport is or that if they played softball, they would constantly hit home runs. It seems that we gave up on equality when we gained the right to vote. Gaining this right was not the end of our fight for equality, it is only the beginning.
Yesterday our class had a "Critical Friends Protocol". This means that one person at a time would share any topics that they were thinking about doing and after they shared for 2 minutes, they had to be silent while everyone discussed if it was a good or a bad idea and how the person could refine their topic. I shared about the two topics I was thinking of: "Why pro softball for women so much less popular than pro baseball for men" and "How restaurants try to trick you into buying more of their food through 'deals' and using msg, salt, and sugar". Everyone agreed that the first idea would be the best and the most interesting. They helped me refine my topic by saying that maybe I should make my topic more broad by adding more sports than just baseball and softball. They also suggested that I could do a survey asking how many people go to girl's hockey games vs. guy's hockey games. This definitely helped me and will improve my topic greatly.
So... today I made a bucket list. It ranged from the normal things such as getting married and having kids to some pretty crazy things such as skydiving or hang- gliding. After I had created a list of 20 things I want to do before I die, I chose 8 of the most important ones. After that, I chose 3 from the 8 most important and made a mind map of each one. I chose playing softball in college, living in Chicago for at least one year, and skydiving. I can't really see how skydiving would make a good topic for my project but I think something to do with the murder rate or gangs in Chicago would be an interesting idea. I also want to keep my previous idea about why pro baseball players get so much more attention than pro softball players. Here were my mind maps for the two:
P.S. Feel free to add more to the lists if anyone has more ideas! Play Softball in College Live in Chicago For at Least One Year Dugout Lights Diamond Bright Outfield After School Programs Pitcher By the hand Short stop Food Life 3rd base Moody 2nd base Bible Institute 1st base Cold Bat Jackets Home run Sears tour The green monster Shopping Baseball stadiums South side Women's vs. men's sports Gangs Rutland Raiders Murders Red and Black Homeless Catcher Windy Strike zone City Glove Leather Vermont Cougars Tournaments Howdy y'all,
My name is Taylor Smith and I am a senior this year at Rutland High School. I am beginning this blog to tell about my adventures of making a global capstone project. Global capstone is the final project requirement of a study focused on global issues. Some of the requirements include a course called international cuisine, 40 hours of community service, and a Y.E.S. plan focused on a global topic. I have 807 hours of community service;). So far, I have no clue what my topic for this project will be but one of my ideas would be to ask the question "Why are women's sports so much less popular than men's sports?" I chose this topic because I love to play softball and it is a sport that is not that popular- especially in comparison to MLB leagues such as the Red Sox. |