Motto Going Forward Principal Tina Rivera Faculty 57 Number of students 692 Mascot Bighorn sheep | Established 1999 Staff 32 Phone +1 203-977-4336 District Stamford School District | |
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Type technology and engineering, inter district, public, magnet school, high school Address 411 High Ridge Rd, Stamford, CT 06905, USA Similar Stamford High School, Westhill High School, Stamford Board of Education, Rippowam Middle School, Darien High School Profiles | ||
Stamford public schools academy of information technology and engineering
The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering (AITE) is a college preparatory, inter-district public magnet high school based in Stamford, Connecticut. AITE serves the Connecticut communities of Stamford, Darien, Greenwich, Norwalk, New Canaan, Redding, Ridgefield, Wilton and Weston. AITE is engaged in educational reform. Its laptop initiative distributes a HP Tablet PC to every student in the school. It utilizes a block schedule with 88-minute periods. AITE students refer to a 4-period schedule each day, alternating between "A and B" days. Classes go by (A1, A2, A3, and A4 on A Days and B1, B2, B3, and B4 on B Days) and there are two different lunch waves (one from 10:30 to 11:00 and one from 12:03 to 12:32).
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History
AITE was established in 1999 as the Academy of Information Technology (AIT). In 2005, the name of the school became the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, in order to reflect the school's emphasis on engineering-related courses in addition to the technology-related courses already offered.
AITE is currently located on the Rippowam Campus and originally shared a building with Rippowam Middle School before moving into its own building in September 2007.
Facilities
AITE opened the doors of its futuristic facility in September 2007, welcoming the class of 2011 after nearly 3 years of planning and construction. The school was a collaborative effort between architecture firm Fuller and D'Angelo, the engineering firms AltieriSeborWieber and Nachman Engineering, and the school's own architecture and engineering students. Located on the Rippowam campus, the school's 120,000-square-foot (11,000 m2) facility houses 700 students, including a 350-seat cafeteria, amphitheater, atrium, and fiberglass domed media center. The design is centered around the atrium, a naturally-lit 3 story tall space housing a grand staircase connecting the school's cafeteria, media center, teacher's lounge, offices, and classrooms. Windowed exterior walls let in sunlight, heating the building, reducing heating costs, and improving student morale.
Each of the building's 40 classrooms is equipped with an expansive audio/visual system, incorporating an LCD projector, document camera, DVD/VHS player, and laptop docking stations to allow students and teachers to quickly interface with the classroom systems.
eChalk
In 2002, AITE introduced a new online content management system for use by its students, faculty, staff and administrators in partnership with eChalk. It allows teachers to post assignments, documents, and links for use by their classes; electronic submission of assignments; group collaboration functions; and provides an email account for all users. Certain "dropboxes" can be set up by teachers for students to submit their classwork, projects, and etc.
Tablet PC Program
In 2005, AITE launched its tablet PC initiative. The program aimed to distribute tablet PCs to all students, faculty, staff, and administrators, in order to provide a better and more convenient resource for schoolwork. The tablets are intended to be used both at home and in school, where they can use the school's wireless information technology infrastructure. The school claims to use a paperless system, allowing students, faculty, staff, and administrators to communicate and collaborate through electronic means, though there are printers in each classroom, and many teachers require students to print out their work. Most of the textbooks are available as e-books.
Biomedical Science
"AITE has been a Project Lead the Way school for 12 years and, when it had the chance to start a biomedical program four years ago, they jumped at it. The organization is a provider of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs in U.S. middle and high schools" (1).
The program consist of four-courses of PLTW Biomedical Science that allows students to investigate the roles of biomedical professionals as they study the concepts of human medicine, physiology, genetics, microbiology, and public health. Students engage in activities like investigating the death of a fictional person to learn content in the context of real-world cases. They examine the structures and interactions of human body system. Students also explore the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease while working collaboratively to understand and design solutions to health challenges and concerns (2).