Summer "Visit" - 2020 - OIRMA

Quotes

• [student:] The most surprising thing I saw was how everyone was learning at the same time and all dealing with the same challenges. It was surprising to see the instructors figuring out TOPCAT at the same time as the students. It was also surprising to see how we encountered obstacles that were not expected, and we had to figure out in the moment. These things were surprising because I am used to a classroom environment where the answers to problems and predetermined and the teachers already know them. I appreciated this contrast to the classroom, and I believe that this contrast is one of the reasons NITARP exists.
• [student:] I realized that good astronomers admit their lack of perfect knowledge and remain curious to strengthen their own intuition and identify new issues.
• It was very interesting that we had to immediately pivot our plans. It doesn’t get more authentic than when Plan A didn’t work, and as a team we had to talk out our next steps on how to find applicable data. It has also been very interesting to see how that develops as we all branch into our own pieces of the research, and how that dialogue continues.
• The best thing about the week was being able to contribute to a real project where we don’t know the answer. [...] It was refreshing to have the chance to explore and analyze.
• [Astronomers need to be] Patient, analytical, flexible and willing to change and being ok with not finding the answers they were hoping for.

Related Teams

• OIRMA/Gorjian