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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

  • [student:] I learned so much and met so many interesting people. It was intense mentally, which I expected it would be, but definitely worth every second.
  • This experience has increased my self-efficacy. I know now that I can do it. I know that sounds funny but I have a renewed sense of ability and drive. I think I had lulled myself into “good enough” and this experience has shown me what is possible.
  • I believe that no one can walk away from the NITARP experience unchanged. Everyone talks about the learning curve, and it is definitely steeper for some of us than others. I believe the “powers that be” need to know how this year-long astronomy boot camp not only builds discipline knowledge but also group learning dynamics. I have never been so proud to say that I have been part of an exceptional group, and in turn organization. I not only learned what it means to be a teacher leader, but assist in making teacher leaders.
  • I want to continue our research! I no longer feel like there is an “us” and “them” between us astronomy educators and those astronomers, and I’d like it to continue. I want to continue the teaching that I have been doing, but I want to get more students involved in research.
  • [student:] The experience will help me with moments where I feel over my head. Previous to NITARP, if there was a moment in class, I really just had no idea what was going on, I would give up, stop paying attention, and just vow to pick up the information from the start another time. I learned through our initial virtual meetings that just does not work very well. Efficient notetaking, even when I don’t really understand what’s being said is a skill I’ll take with me for a long time.

Related Teams

AAS - 2020