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Summer Visit - 2012 - C-WAYS

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 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 C-WAYS team came to visit in July 2012. The core team educators attended, plus 12 students, and two additional scientists.  Dr. JD Armstrong (LCOGT/UH) and Dr. Babar Ali (IPAC) also assissted.

Quotes

  • Overall the program is confirming what I knew about the amount of math and physics involved in real astronomical research. [..] to be part of the process, to see it all in so much more detail makes me appreciate the hard work even more. And it will help convey to young students what they need to move forward to be scientists.
  • Real astronomy isn't just looking through a telescope and jotting down notes. It involves using data from multiple resources, performing calculations, and making judgments about what is being observed. On the trip, I expected to be working with information from telescopes, but I was not expecting the large amount of conversions that needed to be done.
  • The teachers and students did change the way I look at astronomy education. I saw more clearly that science education often goes from one success to the next never showing the details required to reach the scientific understanding. I wonder if an important point of the scientific process is not lost in this approach.
  • [This experience] made me realize it's not easy to be an astronomer, but all the hard work will be worth it. I cannot wait to be one myself.
  • [The best thing was] Watching the students interact with each other and with the science. It was great to see kids from different schools working with each other. It was also really great to see the students embracing the science. They asked our astronomers thoughtful questions that showed they were thinking about the process and the science.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2012 - C-WAYS