Our Insights
What’s Special
Hands-on instruction in design and technology
The Downside
Limited foreign language instruction
The Urban Assembly Maker Academy (UA Maker) is a CTE (career and technical education) school inspired by the maker movement, which promotes the use of technology and design principles to solve everyday problems. The school opened in September 2014 with strong partnerships with Intersection, a design firm that helped develop the maker components of the curriculum, Parsons School of Design and Spring Point Schools, which helped design the school and provided start-up funds.
All students at UA Maker take a full load of academic classes in addition to learning design and related skills. Ninth-graders take a foundations course and beginning in 10th grade students are introduced to a range of topics such as digital animation, video game programing, Python coding language, design, protying, and finance.
A lot of the hands-on design work takes place in the school’s maker lab, a large open space equipped with heavy-duty equipment such as laser and vinyl cutters and 3-D printers.
The school has put in place measures, such as a generous after-school tutoring program, to ensure all students get individual attention and the opportunity to work at their own pace and skill level. Students also participate in a four-year advisory program covering grade-specific issues. For example, freshmen advisory focuses on the school’s core values and understanding the design process, while junior advisory addresses college admissions.
All freshmen take an applied physics course that emphasizes more design concepts and hands-on learning than the standard Regents physics curriculum. and either algebra or geometry, depending on their incoming skill level. In the upper grades there are some Advanced Placement classes and College Now courses in conjunction with several CUNY schools.
To help all students keep up with instruction in English, teachers rely on differentiated texts (middle-, high school- and college- level) covering the same topics of study.
Since students take maker-themed classes every semester, there is little room in their schedule for non-maker themed elective classes. Typical of many CTE (career and technical education schools), foreign language instruction is limited to one year. Students learn Spanish.
UA Maker is housed in the Murry Bergtraum High School building, which is home to the Manhattan Early College School for Advertising and Urban Assembly School for Emergency Management. In addition to school-run after-school activities students from all schools in the building may participate in campus-wide sports teams. (Laura Zingmond, web reports, December 2018)
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School Stats
Academics
Students
Race/Ethnicity
Safety & Vibe
Faculty & Staff
Advanced Courses
Calculus
Computer Science
Physics
Not offered in 2021-21Advanced Foreign Language
Not offered in 2021-21AP/IB Arts, English, History or Social Science
AP/IB Math or Science
Music
Not offered in 2021-21College Readiness
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Programs & Admissions
From the 2024 High School DirectoryUrban Assembly Maker Academy (M61A)
Program Description:
Typical 9th grade schedules include Physics, Algebra or Geometry, US History, ELA, Health, Advisory, Physical Education, Foundations of Computer Science, and Foundations of Design.
Offerings
From the 2024 High School DirectoryAdvanced Courses
Algebra II (Advanced Math), AP Calculus AB, AP Computer Science Principles, AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Environmental Science, AP United States History, Chemistry (Advanced Science)
Boys PSAL teams
Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Indoor Track, Lacrosse, Outdoor Track, Soccer, Volleyball, Wrestling
Girls PSAL teams
Basketball, Cross Country, Flag Football, Indoor Track, Outdoor Track, Softball, Volleyball
Read about admissions, academics, and more at this school on NYCDOE’s MySchools
Contact & Location
Location
411 Pearl Street
Manhattan
NY
10038
Trains: , to Park Place; , , , to Fulton St; , , , , to Chambers St; , to Canal St; to City Hall
Buses: BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, BxM18, M103, M15, M15-SBS, M22, M55, M9, QM11, QM25, QM7, QM8, SIM1, SIM10, SIM11, SIM15, SIM1C, SIM2, SIM3, SIM31, SIM32, SIM33C, SIM34, SIM35, SIM3C, SIM4, SIM4C, SIM4X, SIM5, SIM6, X27, X28, X37, X38
Contact
Other Details
This school shares the Murry Bergtraum Educational Campus with three other schools
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