Chelen Johnson
The team examined the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products catalog to find the most unusual and faintest infrared excess objects serendipitously detected by the Spitzer Space Telescope.
This is my third AAS. I understand so much more than I did the first time, but I STILL HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN! This is a fantastic professional development opportunity, and generates so many ideas each time I come.
I was surprised [during the summer visit] with the speed with which my students increased their proficiency with the tools we are using -- especially Python programming! My students acted very independently and hardly ever needed me to suggest something for them to do next; many times they were already anticipating the next tasks and trying to figure out how to do it!
I've been in the classroom for 35 years, and almost all science education, certainly through the high school level, is fact based and has nothing to do with how science is really done. The opportunity to actually participate in research from square one, where there's a question and no one knows how to answer it, but we're going to figure it out, was just so enticing.
