Chelen Johnson
This virtual team collects all independent research presented in 2013, and done by NITARP or Spitzer alumni with students outside of a formal NITARP team. In 2013, we have one article in The Physics Teacher, and one poster on young stars.
I have found that “real astronomy” involves a lot of data processing. In addition, I have found that collaboration is a very important aspect of the process.
Real astronomy isn’t just looking through telescopes with the naked eye anymore. It is really being accurate and precise and a lot of computer mathematics.
NITARP totally changed the way I teach, and I am grateful. Spreadsheets and data infuse my lessons. I assign kids to create spreadsheets to demonstrate that they really know how to, for example, apply trig to a problem, and then use those spreadsheets to use their solution to answer a question.
