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AAS - 2013

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.

We were out in force at the AAS 2013 meeting in Long Beach, CA! A record number of NITARP-affiliated people attended, including the 2012 class finishing up and the 2013 class getting going. The 80 or so NITARP-affiliated folks made up about 3% of the AAS attendees.

Special article on AAS attendees!  And don't miss Danielle Miller's blog!

Quotes

  • This experience made me develop a higher respect for astronomers and the intensive work they commit themselves to.
  • The most interesting part of the experience was seeing how the entire process of conducting research progressed, especially when our project was modified.
  • [student:] This experience will probably make me try to work harder in the classroom to master the basics that are necessary to pursuing a job in this field.
  • [student:] This experience completely changed the way I looked at astronomy and astronomers; at first I thought that astronomy was a very specialized topic and that they are very few astronomers. Now, I know that astronomy is very vast and can go from cosmology to astrophysics. I didn't know there was an actual difference between the two! Also, I learned that there many of us, and the numbers are growing; this is something I don't ever want to leave. {Ed: note that this student is referring to "many of us" because they already self-identify as an astronomer.}
  • The NITARP experience was terrific from start to finish -- well organized, informative, and unique. I have experienced a number of well-done programs in having HS teachers and/or students participate in research, and NITARP particularly stands out. I think it is the mix of prep work done in advance by teachers and students, the collaborative format of teachers/students/scientists from different locals, the onsite time at Caltech, and the attendance and presentation of posters at an AAS . Each of these elements was important.

Related Teams

AAS - 2013