Our Vision

Emboldening the next generation of creatives.

Our Design and Research, Engineering, Arts, Math, and Science (DREAMS) magnet center focuses on design thinking as a program-wide theme for developing socially-conscious and entrepreneurial students.  Students work on collaborative, cross-curricular projects that employ design thinking, a powerful learning tool that teaches students to use empathy and critical thinking to tackle problems of any kind from a human-centered point of view.
 

At Southeast DREAMS Magnet, students are social entrepreneurs. They must learn to take on multiple lenses of expertise to tackle any given problem.

Within this vertically articulated learning model, students are given developmentally tailored opportunities throughout their middle school experience to engage in systematic, thoughtful work that means something to them and to others. Teachers at Southeast DREAMS Magnet coach students through project work, team building, thoughtful dialogue, and the testing of hypotheses and concepts, with the ultimate goal of promoting systemic, positive impact in the community.

INNOVATIVE DESIGNERS
They find out what’s wrong and design the best solution.

COMPUTATIONAL THINKERS
They look to data to understand the problem better.

CREATIVE COMMUNICATORS
They communicate clearly and express themselves creatively to get others excited about their ideas.

6th Grade
Focus on Self Discovery to Build Empathy

The sixth grade year will lay the groundwork for the design thinking process. Students will engage in empathy-building and self-discovery through projects that focus on understanding themselves.

PROJECT IDEAS IN THE MAKING:

• Create a digital redesign of your family living space to meet the needs of all members, a cross section of architectural mapping and empathy.

• Tackle issues and challenges of making safe and responsible decisions online through EverFi Ignition’s “Organize a Concert for your School” project. Create a blog, manage a social networking site, and work to resolve cyber bullying issues through the project process.

7th Grade
Focus on the School Community

The seventh grade year will continue to foster empathetic entrepreneurship of students with an emphasis on creating innovative change within the school community

PROJECT IDEAS IN THE MAKING:

• Generate advocacy-driven campaigns that uplift diversity and a sense of belonging through Student Snapshots, modeled after the “Humans of New York” campaign on social media

• Redesign the audience experience for Forum Theatre plays based on bullying and bystander issues at school. Showcase real-life situations that would allow “spect-actors” to role-play positive interventions to become “upstanders” in future conflicts on campus.

8th Grade
Focus on Community at Large

Capitalizing on their prior knowledge of design thinking, the 8th Grade curriculum would challenge students to create their own capstone project based on observation, interviews, and research of the South Gate community.

PROJECT IDEAS IN THE MAKING:

• Develop an online application that allows the community to improve in an area of need

• Design a personalized hearing aid for a child that won’t fall out while he plays with his friends at recess

• Develop a project that utilizes technology and mimics nature as seen in Vijay Kumar’s robots that can fly and cooperate