• NASA
  • IPAC

Summer Visit - 2011 - BRC team

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The BRC team came to visit in June 2011. The team's core educators attended, along with 10 students. IPAC staff member Mark Legassie also assisted.

Quotes

  • Astronomers are much different than I expected. ... I didn't realize how many calculations and math was involved. ... it was a real eye-opener for how much we used everything we learned in school.
  • I thought [astronomy] was just about looking at the sky and going, "Oh, look. There's a new star." It's not like that at all. There's a lot more work that goes into it from looking at the pictures to crunching the numbers to researching previous projects to see if what they are finding is right.
  • Real astronomy is uncertainty. Real astronomy is making little mistakes that cause you to check all the data again. Real astronomy is perfectly human
  • [student:] I am so incredibly honored to be a part of an education system like NITARP that gives students a chance to explore astronomy and their future.
  • There is not a right answer from the back of the book. That "what 'you' discover" is valid as long as you follow the proper techniques and continually double and triple check what you are doing with the others in the team.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2011 - BRC team