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AAS - 2013

The Winter American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting is the largest meeting of professional astronomers in the world. NITARP educators attend an AAS first to meet their team, then they go home and work remotely for much of the year, and then attend an AAS to present their results.  At any given AAS, then, we could have two NITARP classes attending - those finishing up, and those getting started. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

We were out in force at the AAS 2013 meeting in Long Beach, CA! A record number of NITARP-affiliated people attended, including the 2012 class finishing up and the 2013 class getting going. The 80 or so NITARP-affiliated folks made up about 3% of the AAS attendees.

Special article on AAS attendees!  And don't miss Danielle Miller's blog!

Quotes

  • My NITARP experience has made me rethink my entire approach to science education. Many of my students expect me to do the work and pretty much hand it to them all wrapped up and neat. Science education must involve a great deal of discovery by the student and not a string of topics with definitions.
  • Overall, this project has seriously been one of the best things I've ever done and made me feel like a real part of an adult community of highly intelligent people.
  • Before ever having experienced an American Astronomical Society meeting, I thought I was well versed in the astronomer's culture. After taking numerous classes, doing hands-on labs, and even having worked in the field of astronomy education for several years now I also thought I knew what an astronomer did. My experience has been one of culture shock. [...] The AAS conference is a factory for knowledge and truth about the Universe. As David Helfand, president of the society said in his opening remarks, "We do astronomy because it defines us as human beings." I'm just now truly beginning to understand.
  • I didn't anticipate how nice everyone was going to be to us as high school students at the conference -- everybody who stopped by was very encouraging and seemed impressed by the fact that we were there, let alone making a decent presentation.
  • I learned a lot, and I had a great time.

Related Teams

AAS - 2013