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Summer Visit - 2023 - SCHARP

The summer visit to Caltech is 4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The SCHARP team came to visit in June 2023. The 5 core team educators attended, plus 10 students.

Quotes

  • [student:] I loved astronomy prior to the trip but I have even more interest in it now that I’ve gotten to do some actual work in the area.
  • "Real astronomy" is using real data to analyze and make conclusions. Research is an iterative process in the sense that we get some answers that generate more questions. And we did that!
  • My advice for teachers is to be willing to take the risk of learning side-by-side with your students. Likely every teacher is reluctant to do this, but if you can get over the initial anxiety, the rewards are great for yourself, your students, and even your school’s culture.
  • [student:] The NITARP experience has certainly influenced my thoughts on college. Even though I am not considering majoring in astronomy-related fields, I think the research experience has ignited my passion for further participating in research in college or my future career.
  • [student:] The least surprising thing I learned was that even scientists feel stupid sometimes. I feel like that makes a lot of sense and makes me feel a little better about how I feel when trying to do research.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2023 - SCHARP