Chelen Johnson
As a result of my student Cody's work with NITARP, Cody is now working with Chris Crawford who developed a meteor counting system for NASA that was used on a plane in 1999. Cody and Chris are making an app for counting meteors that will take users' GPS position and uses that to do spatial analysis on the data.
What makes NITARP extraordinary is the level of commitment: both the program's commitment to teachers, and the commitment required from teachers. Teachers commit to a year of hard work, study, risk taking, and intellectual growth. In return, NITARP commits to teachers the most precious resource possible: attentive and supportive mentorship from astronomers at one of the world's premiere research institutions. For me and my students the results have been transformative.
NITARP also gave me a lot of confidence to explore other projects and other ways to do professional development. It's given me a lot of ways to further explore astronomy, and it's given me the confidence to do that.