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.
The 2007 and 2008 Spitzer Space Telescope Research Program for Teachers and Students teams attended the 2008 January AAS meeting in Austin, TX. The 2008 class was the last class formally part of the Spitzer program.
The program had a very strong showing at the January 2008 AAS meeting, with the largest group attending to date. A total of ten posters were presented by program teachers, students, and scientists generating a great deal of interest from others at the meeting. In all, eight teachers and twelve students presented their Spitzer work. Steve Pompea led a workshop for the newly selected (class of 2008) Spitzer program teachers, during which the teachers learned more about the Spitzer Space Telescope and infrared astronomy. They were also were introduced to infrared educational activities and learned how to get their students involved in research.