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Summer Visit - 2015 - LADDT

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 LADDT team came to visit in June 2015. The core team educators attended, plus 14 students.

Quotes

  • It was important to work on the data together, as a large team—we were able to pair with new partners and better understand the questions we had.
  • [student: Real astronomers] have to be willing to feel stupid or dumb at times. This program really showed us that you're going to mess up and that its okay. Sometimes your data will be wrong or you worked a problem wrong. It is going to be okay. You can't always expect the right answer on the first try.
  • [student:] I thought working together at Caltech enabled us to become more comfortable with one another and we were able to work together and share ideas and collaborate which made our time and our work more meaningful. We could communicate about which combinations worked or didn’t work or tips about excel. After the visit, I think the group bonded quite a bit and now we’re a much more cohesive team than before the trip.
  • Astronomy is pretty much all about the math so you better be good at it.
  • [student:] the benefits of actually working together with the group greatly outweigh the financial and logistical hassle. When we were all together, we got to know and understand each other, which in turn improved our ability to work cohesively as a group, which in turn betters our project.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2015 - LADDT