Chelen Johnson
This virtual team collects all independent research presented in 2014, and done by NITARP or Spitzer alumni with (or without) students outside of a formal NITARP team.
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.
Everything [at the 2013 AAS] was new. The interesting piece was attending a press briefing and then comparing that to the scientist version.
I have found that “real astronomy” involves a lot of data processing. In addition, I have found that collaboration is a very important aspect of the process.
