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AAS - 2019

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 2018 and 2019 NITARP teams attended the 2019 January AAS meeting in Seattle, WA. The 2018 class was presenting results and the 2019 class was starting up. We had 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:

2018 Teams:

NITARP Management:

Returning Alumni Teams:

 

Quotes

  • [student:] This program completely altered my perception of what astronomy is and what astronomers actually do. Sure, there is a lot of data analysis and paper writing, but seeing everyone come together at AAS showed me the passion these people have for their careers and it was a really cool thing to see.
  • [student:] This experience taught me to be more patient and accept that I won’t know everything right away. It has also showed me that making mistakes and not understanding something are essential parts of science.
  • The pursuit of science, the business of pushing back the boundary of knowledge by tiny bits, is a much messier, far more beautiful, intricate and rewarding process than the “What is Science” chapter at the beginning of every school book.
  • I can't believe how many amazingly smart people there are in this field. I was also very impressed by the undergrads and the research they were doing. And I was pleased to see continued progress in the diversity in the field.
  • [NITARP] has changed how I teach in that I am now utilizing online databases with my research students for those who are looking for astronomy projects to work on. I also require my research students to produce posters of their work and to use those posters for presentations at the regional science fair and when they give presentations at the local science center. My astronomy students also now use online materials for some of their lab assignments as well.

Related Teams

AAS - 2019