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Summer Visit - 2013 - SHIPs

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The SHIPs team came to visit in June 2013. The core team educators attended, plus 9 students.

Quotes

  • [student:] The fact that neither the teachers nor the researchers knew all the "answers" to the research we were doing was surprising. Unlike school where the teacher generally knew the answer, the research we participated in this past week was totally new to everyone, including the teachers. That type of situation was a great experience and will prepare me for future experiences in the work world. [Our mentor scientist] said "You don't always have to know the answer; just how to find it." During the trip we were taught how to find answers by analyzing data and using prior knowledge instead of simply memorizing facts and formulas.
  • [student:] Not only did I gain a great amount of knowledge and experience regarding photometry and computer programming, but I met some great people as well. Everyone there was eager to learn, to teach and to have fun. All of the teachers are great people and were very supportive, and the kids who went are now new friends of mine, and I am very excited to see them all again in January.
  • [student:] it .. is such an incredible feeling to be doing real research that matters and to solve an unanswered question. All my life, in every science class I’ve been in, the result of an experiment or project has always been known. I know that if I ask my teacher a question, he or she will know the answer. For the first time in my life, the answer is unknown and I am helping to solve it.
  • [student:] The small amount of stress that accompanied the work was the least surprising to me. I was well aware that I would not know a lot of things the researchers/presenters were saying. However, I was prepared to ask questions and push through the work.
  • [student:] I loved learning how to use python, APT, and ds9. It really opened my eyes to a whole new field of science.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2013 - SHIPs