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AAS - 2015

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.

The 2014 and 2015 NITARP teams attended the 2015 January AAS meeting in Seattle, WA. The 2014 class was presenting results and the 2015 class was starting up. We had many alumni raise money to come back as well. We sent about 50 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here:

Quotes

  • [student:] I was worried I wouldn't understand anything or that I wouldn't be able to answer questions asked of me. I felt none of these things, and everyone was super friendly, nice, and personable.
  • In the past, I had never tried to use raw astronomical data (such as .fits files at various wavelengths) for stars or open clusters because I didn’t know how to analyze it or where to find it. Now that I know both, I have already begun to create and test lesson plans that teach my students how to do such things as create representative color images from IR data, chart SEDs, or even do photometry or more advanced analyses. Now my students can do real science, and hopefully take the next step of getting our own telescope and camera and taking our own photos at chosen wavelengths, reducing the images, and analyzing the results.
  • [student:] This was the first time I really learned what it is like to have to work through problems.
  • [student:] There was a high school event at AAS, I think it was for local high school students who were interested in astronomy. We were planning to go to it but then we found out it was really kid stuff. It was for people on the outside, and we realized that we’re on the inside now, even though we only know a tiny bit.
  • [student:] This experience alone has caused me to seriously consider majoring in astrophysics or physics in college and going into the field of astronomy. It has given me more of an incentive to work harder in my calculus and physics classes at school.

Related Teams

AAS - 2015