Middle Years Program

Amundsen High School, in conjunction with McPherson Elementary School, has been authorized for the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IB MYP) for students in grades 6 – 10. Students who attend Amundsen’s IB MYP, from any elementary school, will receive honors credit in 9th and 10th grade and internal recognition for their achievements in the program. They will also receive priority consideration for entrance into the IB Diploma program. The MYP curriculum is holistic and intense, offering students challenging classes and, ultimately, a rewarding breadth of knowledge and exposure.

 

 

 

 

The Middle Years Program (MYP) provides a framework of academic challenge and life skills for students aged 11-16 years. The five-year program offers an educational approach that embraces yet transcends traditional school subjects. It serves as excellent preparation for the IB Diploma Program.

 

 

The MYP, like the other two programs of the International Baccalaureate Program, is based on the premise that education can foster understanding among young people around the world. Intercultural awareness is central to the program, to enable future generations to live more peacefully and productively than we do today.

 

 

Students at this stage—early puberty to mid-adolescence—are in a particularly critical phase of personal and intellectual development. This is a time of uncertainty, sensitivity, resistance and questioning. An educational program needs to provide them with discipline, skills and challenging standards, but also with creativity and flexibility. IB builds its program around these considerations but it is also concerned that students develop a personal value system by which to guide their own lives, as thoughtful members of local communities and the larger world.

  

 

The MYP program provides a thorough study of various disciplines. It also accentuates the interrelatedness of them, acknowledging the role of the subject disciplines and transdisciplinary study. At the same time, IB recognizes the importance of respecting the independence and integrity of each discipline.

 

   

 

This is an independent piece of work that is intended to be the culmination of the student’s involvement with the five areas. It may be an essay, an artistic production or other form of expression, with the topic chosen in consultation with teachers.