NASA/IPAC Teacher
Archive Research Program

I've been involved in many professional development activities and this is by far the best one I've ever done

Chelen Johnson

Variability of the Mid-IR Sky: Using archival Spitzer Space Telescope data to look for variability of stars at mid-infrared wavelengths.

I will say that I think part of every good astronomy (or any science) research project is asking a question you don't know the answer to, and I hope that as a teacher I can bring that back to my class. Along with asking questions, both collaboration and organization are important parts of working together for science.
This experience has forced me to look at something new and has inspired me to enrich and improve my classes.
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!