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.
Being a mentor teacher is easy because these teachers are fantastic. They're just off and running with the project.
I'm also here with other educators, rubbing shoulders with them, seeing how they teach things, how they frame things, like what their mindset is. I keep opening my syllabus for the fall and adding things to it based on whatever we talked about here.
[This experience] has made me realize that while I use a lot of inquiry, I don’t always involve my students in the process of developing a testable question.
