Chelen Johnson
This virtual team collects all independent research presented in 2015, and done by NITARP or Spitzer alumni with (or without) students outside of a formal NITARP team.
I was surprised and very encouraged to see a high proportion of people which are generally considered underrepresented in the sciences. That was a terrific take-home message for my students.
So many of us science teachers do labs where the end is known (which is sometimes necessary to make sure they fit in a class period and that the students understand the concept we're trying to learn) but that's not really science.
Participating in NITARP has made me more confident about teaching Astronomy and communicating to students about how archive Astronomy research is done. They are surprised to learn that even THEY could do Astronomy research. My students and I had such a experience (they LOVED the JPL tour) and I'd love to participate again because I have some new students that I think would love this program!
