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:

Education Poster - Rebull, "A Way to Categorize Programs that Bring Data to the Classroom"

Returning Alumni Teams:

Quotes

It is programs like this that have kept me in the teaching profession, have taught me to be am more effective teacher, and should be replicated in all fields and at all levels in all schools. If they really want to increase student success and have our students ready for the workforce and college we have to be providing them – and more importantly their teachers – with the experience in the ‘real world’. Teacher prep programs are out of touch with reality and do not provide the needed exposure or training to help them help our students succeed. Students are worn down with testing and high-pressure curriculum heavy course work that doesn’t develop innovation, support curiosity, or inspire. We need to change the system for all at all levels with cooperation between educators and other fields – and start treating teachers as professionals equal to engineers, nurses, writers, biologists, business managers, etc. We need innovative programs like this to make real change in our educational system.
What an amazing experience (head is still swimming).
[student:] I think one of the most interesting things I did was having conversations with college students and their posters. The reality of the experience was more than I could have imagined, having the opportunity to have one to one conversations with people making substantial research in the field was more than what I expected.
[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.
[the most interesting thing was] Taking something that seemed so beyond my realm of expertise and experience and making it a reality. When I began the project, I thought that this was going to be a year of just getting by and hoping that no one noticed I had no idea what I was doing, but it turned out I really got involved and learned.

AAS - 2019

Quotes

Related Teams