Chelen Johnson
IDYL is the IDentification of YSOs in the Lagoon Nebula. This team is looking for known and new YSOs in M8, the Lagoon Nebula.
The best thing about the trip was the chance to interact with others who are trying to do the same things that I am trying to do. No one else around me tries to do student research (even though I have tried to get other teachers involved), not in my district nor in any of the surrounding ones. It was great to spend time with other teachers (and their students) who are trying to accomplish the same things that I am trying to do.
The more I talked with astronomers and support staff at the different booths [at my first AAS], the more I began to realize that being a teacher, and an amateur astronomer, is really very different from being a professional astronomer.
The time at Caltech was fantastic. I enjoyed working alongside my students in a way that felt very different from the typical classroom setting.
