• NASA
  • IPAC

AAS - 2024

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 2023 and 2024 NITARP teams attended the 2024 January AAS meeting in New Orleans, LA. The 2023 class was presenting results and the 2024 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 press release on NITARP from the AAS, and the special online article about NITARP at the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here. (In addition to the iPoster sessions as listed here, the physical versions of the 2023 teams' posters were up at the IPAC booth all day Tuesday.)

2023 teams:

Alumni:

  • 167.01 Sperling et al., Student-Led High Altitude Ballooning into Solar Eclipses (Monday 5:30-6:30)
  • 171.03 Rebull et al., NITARP Lesson Plans: Bite-Size Pieces of Authentic Science Research Experiences (Monday 5:30-6:30)
  • 171.06 Newland, Using Google Colab to Teach Hubble-Lemaitre's Law with BOSS Data (Monday 5:30-6:30)
  • 176.02 Rebull et al., Young Stellar Object Candidates in IC 417 (Monday 5:30-6:30)
  • 203.03 Wojciak et al., Exploring Color-Magnitude Relationships Among Quasars with z between 1.5-1.75 (Tuesday 9-10)
  • 458.21 Jones & Rutherford, The Three-Dimensional Structure of IC 2391 (Thursday 1-2)

Quotes

  • I am a huge fan of the “NITARP Process,” which in my mind, means to conduct a difficult scientific research project and learn as much as possible in the process under the guidance of a mentor. I conduct my scientific research course this way, and while it is initially a challenge for students, they have life-changing experiences by essentially muscling through those challenges. If anything, this NITARP experience has reinforced my use of the NITARP Process” in my classroom.
  • I could not believe the amount of research being done regarding [my topic]. I do my best to read up on some astronomical findings but was simply floored by the number of things I had no knowledge of.
  • [student:] The most interesting thing I learned over the whole year of the research was the way how astronomers conduct their research. Before coming into this program, I pictured astronomers to be observers of the night skies most of the time. I didn't realize that data analysis and programming were such huge components of the task. This experience has definitely changed my perspective and my expectations of what I picture an astronomer to be doing.
  • NITARP has changed my professional goals in that I’m now looking: 1) farther afield and with greater aspirations of what I could maybe do/accomplish, and 2) for things to do with my students. On the first count, NITARP has given me greater confidence to try things out, even if it just means applying for a program that I may have deemed too ambitious or beyond my capabilities prior to this experience. And on the second count, I enjoyed learning and working with my students and exposing them to something they never would have seen, much less considered, from their home, and would like to do it with others.
  • [student]: Personally, the most interesting thing I did over the whole year was being able to interact with real astronomers and get to see exactly what their career is like. I found it very interesting because I’ve thought about working in astronomy for a while.

Related Teams

AAS - 2024