At PS/MS 200, The Magnet School of Global Studies & Leadership, students graduate with a profound appreciation for diversity, an understanding of the challenges facing people around the world, and the skills that will enable them to effect change in the 21^st century. Our Magnet theme spans two major topics, global studies and leadership, just as our school spans two levels, elementary and middle. Students across all grade levels discover and celebrate other countries and cultures and they will take advantage of many local institutions and organizations that support our focus on global studies.

Teachers here develop expertise in innovative instructional methods, such as Project-Based Learning, to design hands-on, student-centered units of study that are aligned to current standards, address 21^st century skills, incorporate STEM education, and integrate the school’s Magnet theme. This enables teachers to deliver meaningful instruction needed for responsible citizenship in a complex, culturally diverse, and rapidly changing world.

Through an emphasis on global competence, geographic literacy and STEM education, our students learn to be innovators and leaders in the world community. They use multimedia and computer technology as tools to gather, organize, analyze, and create digital content and as platforms to communicate with students and families across the globe. Other examples of how learners will use technology and STEM education to support global competence and geographic literacy include the use of Google Earth, Engineering is Elementary and a STEM lab to facilitate Service Learning projects and themed PBL units of study. Moreover, the school has created a STEM lab to support the Engineering Design Process by allowing students to work on Makers projects and Service Learning units that ask them to design products that will benefit the community or help solve global problems.

Our school integrates global studies and leadership seamlessly into the core subjects, and students in our upper grades are also able to pursue "Enrichment Courses" through the School-wide Enrichment Model. Teachers, staff developers, and school leaders work together to create a PK-8 Scope & Sequence for Global Studies and Leadership that incorporates the NYC Scope & Sequences for Science and Social Studies. Since “Global Studies & Leadership” encompasses many topics, we plan to organize our Magnet Scope & Sequence into sub-themes at each grade level that correspond to that grade level’s NYC Scope & Sequences. These sub-themes, underneath the umbrella of global studies and leadership, would serve to sharpen each grade’s focus when integrating the Magnet theme into the curriculum.

PBL (Project-Based Learning) and STEM education plays a major role in our program. The PBL method promotes collaborative learning and its structure enables the teacher to confer with smaller groups or individual students who might need extra support or further enrichment. This type of small-group, targeted instruction ensures that all students have access to new concepts and that the teacher can support them individually each day. We recognize that a focus on global studies and leadership calls for an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Our students gain exposure to a variety of careers in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics so that they can begin thinking “outside the box” about future professions. The possibilities are endless!

The overarching goals of our Magnet program are to promote acceptance and diversity, to create learning opportunities that engage students in problem solving at the global level, and to produce future leaders who want to make a difference. Our school challenges students to consider the important question: How can I become a leader in today’s world?