Metropolitan Business Academy is a magnet school with a business focus. Our school currently has 400 students enrolled; however, each grade is not made up of 100 students at this time because the program is still growing. There are roughly 90 students in the senior class and 115 students in the freshmen class. Because we are a magnet school, half of our students (as intended) come from urban districts (in this case, New Haven), and half come from surrounding suburban districts (like Branford, North Haven, and Wallingford). Currently, sixty percent of our students are from New Haven and forty percent are from suburban districts within a thirty-mile radius. Our school is made up of forty percent Hispanic/Latino students, forty percent African American students, and twenty percent Caucasian or other (mostly Asian) students. Every year our school becomes a little more diverse.
In our school, there are four pathways that students can choose from at the end of their ninth grade year. The pathways include: allied health & science, law & political science, digital media & technology, and finance. Every student must enroll in one pathway, but students can take courses outside of their pathway as an elective if there is room in the class. In robotics, there are mostly students who are in the technology pathway, but I also have students who are taking it as an elective. This particular robotics course is for juniors and seniors who have already taken Algebra 1 and Geometry, and students who have or are currently enrolled in Algebra 2.