Chelen Johnson
The Sharpless CHARcuterie Playground (SCHARP) team will be studying several targets selected from the Sharpless (1959) catalog to see if there are young stars therein.
I assumed that [research] would require a great deal of data analysis, what I didn’t grasp until after this[, my first AAS] meeting was how focused and detailed the analysis would be. The steps in understanding that are gained through the analysis are much smaller than I anticipated they would be for the amount of work that is done.
I really enjoyed meeting members of the other NITARP teams and comparing their experience to mine. Everyone’s experience was different, but there seemed to be an overwhelming consensus that NITARP was the most significant, educational, and enjoyable professional development experience they have ever had. I could not agree more.
Since I teach students how to do research, it would be cool if I was doing research too and show them that I don't know what's going to happen, and I'm doing the same type of stuff that they are doing in research class. I wanted NITARP to help make me a better teacher in research and a better teacher in astronomy.
