Chelen Johnson
The goal of SHIPs (Searching Herschel Images for Protostars) is to find and identify stars in the earliest phases of formation in NGC 281, a.k.a. "the pac-man nebula". These stars will help us understand the history of the star formation process in that region.
[NITARP] was also one of the strongest experiences I have had in my 20+ years teaching. Your program is amazing and you are wondering. It is priceless. I know you invest so much into it; I wanted to share a bit of the impact you are having. Thanks for doing what you do so well.
I am currently doing my unit in my Space Tech class on stellar evolution, and I have added about 2 more weeks of info/labs to this from all I have learned this year via my NITARP experience. Although I knew the basics before, and have taught them for about 18 years, I feel like I'm teaching a whole new unit and can not only go deeper with my kids, but do it with much more passion.
My students were really impressed when I gave them just a summary of some of the stuff we did and saw [at the AAS]!
