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AAS - 2011

The Winter American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting is the largest meeting of professional astronomers in the world. NITARP educators attend an AAS first to meet their team, then they go home and work remotely for much of the year, and then attend an AAS to present their results.  At any given AAS, then, we could have two NITARP classes attending - those finishing up, and those getting started. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The 2010 and 2011 NITARP teams attended the 2011 January AAS meeting in Seattle, WA. The 2010 class was presenting results and the 2011 class was starting up. Special feature article on AAS attendees!  There were nearly 60 NITARP-affiliated folks, about 2% of the attendees at the AAS meeting!! We presented 9 posters. Also see Luisa's blog entry about this.

 

Quotes

  • [This] was truly an unforgettable experience.
  • When we first met to discuss what our project was about, I admit that I felt a little overwhelmed and ill-informed. [..] By the end of Tuesday's sessions, I felt that I had a better general understanding of [my subject]. I will still need help learning the analysis, but I think I'll be able to catch on pretty quickly.
  • Before this conference, I hardly thought about the different methods people with physical impairments would have to use to learn [astronomy].[...] The main message I took away from the poster was that science is for literally anyone who is curious and willing to learn, no matter what the current circumstances are.
  • It was wonderful to see the students from last year presenting their posters and talking with astronomers and teachers from all over the world.
  • The most interesting thing I noticed this year was that I spent much more time seeking out, listening to and talking about science than I did about education itself. There was plenty of overlap but I felt more confident asking questions and I had a much better idea of the questions I wanted to explore.

Related Teams

AAS - 2011