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AAS - 2020

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 2019 and 2020 NITARP teams attended the 2020 January AAS meeting in Honolulu, HI. The 2019 class was presenting results and the 2020 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:

2019 Teams:

NITARP Management:

Returning Alumni Teams:

Quotes

  • [...] it is really hard to isolate one moment or cite one experience as the most interesting. In fact, what stands out to me is the cumulative experience. It is comparing my ignorance during the AAS Seattle meeting with my comprehension during the AAS Honolulu meeting. [...] I was a bit overwhelmed and a little unnerved about what I had gotten myself into. [...] during AAS Honolulu, I was amazed at how much more I was able to take in during the conference sessions. Not only that, but I was so pleased and proud and the performance of my students, [...] during the poster session for our science research. They were able to explain our project so coolly and completely. That they benefited so much from the experience is extremely gratifying to me as a teacher.
  • It so amazing how much can be learned about the cosmos around us from the color, location and intensity of light, gravity waves and neutrinos… the multimessenger universe is unfolding before our eyes. I am so jazzed to be given the opportunity to participate as a researcher in some small part of this great adventure.
  • [The] intrinsic motivation that comes about when a student learns that struggling with a problem yields a result (btw, the NITARP idea that research sometimes leads nowhere (forgive the oversimplification) is an important lesson, but at the same time, students ARE successful with every step of the process. [...] how much of the Algebra 2 curriculum is embedded in astronomy, and how abstractly weird ideas like logs fall out as the most natural way to talk about things. [...] NITARP exposes kids to the reality of STEM employment… things like the normalcy of your families, the kinds of things STEM can do in a professional setting. Few kids have real world scientists as role models and hence have no basis for visualizing a future as a scientist. NITARP kids do.
  • We did not anticipate getting all of the way through our selection process and then find that a crucial step used invalid data! But it was very satisfying to step back, and figure out a process that would give us useful results in the end. It was a great way to experience for ourselves the fact that it is normal to encounter obstacles in research.
  • I believe this experience will make me a better ambassador of my college and my fields (sciences and education). I have a renewed interest in working within all science disciplines, unafraid to meet the interests or questions of my students. The NITARP experience was the perfect opportunity at the perfect time. I hope to get involved with more research groups, beyond my campus.

Related Teams

AAS - 2020