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Summer Visit - 2016 - LLAMMa

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 LLAMMa team came to visit in July 2016. The 3 core team educators attended, plus 11 students.

Quotes

  • [student:] This experience most definitely changed the way that I think about astronomy. It allowed me to see that not all the data that is received is the most accurate due to the limitations of the instruments and many other objects in space.
  • [student:] Until last year, I thought astronomy was confined to learning about our Solar System. I thought astronomers didn’t work in the day and stood at a telescope all night taking notes. After all, my only astronomy unit was in third grade, when we learned about the planets. After all of our research, work, and speakers, I understand that there are many branches of astronomy.
  • Overall, *all* of my experiences with real scientists, especially those who work in the field to collect data, contradict the simple model of the hypothesis-experiment-conclusion that textbooks taught me and (attempt) to teach students even to this day.
  • The best thing about the trip was getting to spend time together working. I enjoyed watching the kids get to know each other and the other adults. I watched them grow in confidence and it made me feel very accomplished. Even though I was exhausted at the end of every day, it was well spent time and that face-to-face block of time was necessary for making sure my students and I understood everything.
  • [student:] Yes. I really like [astronomy]. I had an idea of what [astronomers] did but, actually doing it made me realize how much i actually liked astronomy. And as for astronomers… I realized that there is a large team of people from various backgrounds that contributed in their own ways.

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Summer Visit - 2016 - LLAMMa