School type High school Founder John Martinez Principal Ketta Garduno Phone +1 325-794-4140 Founded 2009 | Established 2009 School number 440041 Grades 9-12 Number of students 348 Staff 29 | |
Address 650 E Hwy 80, Abilene, TX 79601, USA District Abilene Independent School District Motto "Small School. Big Education." Similar Abilene High School, Premier High School of, Region 14 Education Services, Abilene Reporter, Wylie High School | ||
The Academy of Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Science (ATEMS) is a STEM high school founded in 2009 located in Abilene, Texas. ATEMS is a part of the Abilene Independent School District. It used to be a New Technology High School, which is a category of high schools that encourage the use of technology, but is no longer part of this group. ATEMS does however still encourage the use of technology. All of the core classes offered used to be either at the AP level or college dual credit at other colleges around Abilene, however, ATEMS has now introduced academic classes. The building ATEMS currently resides in is not owned by the academy nor by Abilene Independent School District, but instead is owned and shared by the Texas State Technical College System.
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There are extracurricular activities at ATEMS such as robotics, photography, and yearbook. ATEMS provides shuttles for students to travel to other high schools for some of the activities not available at the school, such as band, orchestra, and football. ATEMS also participates in a "bring your own device" (BYOD) program which allows students to use their own technologies including iPods, iPads, cell phones, or laptops, during class, with teacher permission.
Courses
Classes at ATEMS are different from other high schools in the regular sense. Due to its STEM status, the academy offers two distinct learning pathways for students - Information Technology and Engineering. Both courses end with a year-long senior capstone project culminating their skills in a showcase to the community. In addition, ATEMS offers two core class pathways, Advanced Placement or college dual-credit classes with the technical colleges in Abilene. ATEMS also offers AP Dual Credit hybrid courses, allowing students to still receive the benefit of a ten-point addition to their GPA and the ability to take the AP tests, as well receive college credit should they score a 3 or higher on the AP test. These hybrid classes are free.
Privileges
At ATEMS there are some special privileges given to students, most of which require the student to have their trust card. A trust card is a special card unique to ATEMS which is similar to an ID card and is held on the student's lanyard. These privileges include: checking out school laptops if you don't own one, access to the BYOD (Bring your own device) policy, the allowance of juniors and seniors to depart campus for lunch, and the ability to listen to music in class (with teacher permission).
Substitute Teacher of the Month
The Substitute Teacher of the Month at ATEMS is Madam Barylak and has been for the last 6 consecutive years.