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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

  • [student:] I realized that astronomers are very nice people, and very helpful. They love to talk about their research, which is not something that I'm complaining about. Listening to them talk about everything they've done made me almost as excited as they were!
  • [At one of the sessions] one of the scientists had a terrible time talking. Painful as it was for him, he continued through it, and the students were surprised how tolerant the audience was, saying "that would never happen at our school." We had sort of a mini-lesson, or teachable moment on values and expectations, which was great! The students were also in awe of how difficult/mathematical/intense the material presented was.
  • I was impressed over and over again by the students' command of the material -- clearly they were fully invested in this project. They explained their work with clarity and enthusiasm. I think that more than anything else, hearing these kids talk about their work really convinced me how valuable this experience is for students.
  • NITARP has opened doors for me in many ways. It's exposed me to real research, it's got me thinking about ways to innovate and create real research experiences for my students, and it's made me aware of the numerous opportunities out there for science teachers to become better at what they do.
  • My perception of astronomy has broadened into a realization that, behind research, there is problem-solving, collaboration, creativity, excitement, and curiosity.

Related Teams

AAS - 2013