Chelen Johnson
I have a much better sense of what research astronomy is about now, and I think I will have more confidence to try new things (related to astronomy) going forward.
I hope other teachers get to keep experiencing this program forever, because this is the single greatest professional development opportunity I have ever experienced, and I'm a junkie. I was a master teacher for a nationwide pre college and engineering program for 18 years. I've run non profits for 20 years. This is the best PD experience for teachers I've ever experienced, because it is authentic from beginning to end.
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.