Chelen Johnson
The HIPS AGaiN (Hidden in Plain Sight AGaiN) team will be using archival surveys for stellar variability to detect variability in active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the background.
[The best thing about the trip was} Doing real science. I can't say enough how much I value the opportunity NITARP has given me to be part of real astronomy research for the first time in my career. Bringing back the knowledge, the feeling of not knowing, the drive to continue to find an answer and the skills that I needed to work in a group will be so helpful to me and my students.
It was amazing being, not just an attendee of the conference, but a real part of it through the poster presentations.
I've been in the classroom for 35 years, and almost all science education, certainly through the high school level, is fact based and has nothing to do with how science is really done. The opportunity to actually participate in research from square one, where there's a question and no one knows how to answer it, but we're going to figure it out, was just so enticing.
