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Summer Visit - 2015 - IC417

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 IC417 team came to visit in June 2015. The core team educators attended, plus 8 students.

Quotes

  • [student:] I am also glad to say that whole reason why we are doing this makes more sense to me as a student. Before I knew what we were searching for but even then I didn’t realize how big of a deal it really was.
  • [student:] The most surprising part to me was how much this project is truly ours. Our scientist has us do all our own work and trusts our abilities in doing so. We sit, struggle, but then we figure it out, with only assistance when really needed, and that our scientist isn't doing all the work for us. We make the charts and look over the research and we find the answers. So I guess I am surprised by how much we do in this projects, and that it isn’t the scientist doing all the work.
  • This experience certainly has changed my thoughts about astronomy and astronomers. I really did not know what they did except teach college classes. I enjoyed seeing the less formal and family friendly atmosphere at Spitzer. This experience will be shared with my students for some time.
  • [Astronomers need to] be patient, thorough, mathematical as well has have a good understanding of most different types of science as astronomy seems to be related to all branches. You also need to be able to communicate effectively.
  • [student:] JPL was so cool and the history behind it was fascinating, as well as getting to see models of telescopes, satellites, and the Mars Curiosity. It was very inspiring to see other scientists’ work and how science applies to real life, which has reinforced my decision to study science (most likely physics) in university, which will be very soon.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2015 - IC417