Chelen Johnson
C-CWEL (Continuing Cool WISE ExpLoration of BRC 38): Continuing on some work started by the C-WAYS team last year, this team is using Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) infrared images to search for newly forming stars in bright rimmed cloud (BRC) 38.
[working at the same level as the students] changes how you approach teaching. Being surrounded by people, whether they're older or younger, who are asking these awesome questions, it’s liberating.
This experience has completely changed my once shallow view of astronomy and astronomers.
Honestly, I left [the 2013 AAS] a bit more in love with astronomy. I just plain had fun wandering and treated myself to time as a learner. It is not often we, educators, get to slide out of expert mode and into learner mode.