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Summer Visit - 2014 - HG-WELS

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 HG-WELS team came to visit in July 2014. The core team educators attended, plus 10 students.

 

Quotes

  • [student:] I never realized that a lot of astronomy is looking through data collected by previous missions. I also learned that astronomy is pure science, and involves lots of theorizing.
  • One of the things that NITARP changed in regards to how I viewed astronomy and astronomers is the use of archived data. Prior to NITARP I always thought of astronomers using data they had collected.
  • [student: Real astronomy is] Making charts, sifting through data... that is what they really do! (Although I didn’t know it would be this hardcore... I’m beat!) And snacks, snacks are always a part of scientific research!
  • Theoretically the work could have been done online, but the students really needed the hands-on help and explanations, as they had never been exposed to those units or the deep details of importing and working with data in Excel. They also needed the feeling of community, of meeting other students with similar interests from other schools, and the sense of identity and recognition the summer visit gave them. If they had done this only online, it would not have had the same degree of impact or motivation for them. [...] Working directly with scientists at the Spitzer Science Center gives them a chance to know what real scientific research is like. They are all very excited for the AAS trip, which will give them even more exposure to real science and scientists.
  • [student:] Real astronomy is really numerical. It’s not looking through a telescope all the time, but I can’t really define “real astronomy.” It’s just kinda studying the sky. I expected to look at pictures of the sky and numbers, which we did. I didn’t think we’d be doing so many maths, just because I didn’t.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2014 - HG-WELS