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Summer Visit - 2013 - C-CWEL

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, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The "C-CWEL" team came to visit in August 2013. The core team educators attended, plus 11 students.

Quotes

  • I was pleasantly shocked by the engagement between all educators and all students. The students, all between the ages of 15 and 17, were engaging not only with the teacher they came with but with all the teachers. They were open to learning new things from educators who they were unfamiliar and at the same time assisting one another and every teacher just the same. Throughout the week everyone ran into problems that needed to be solved. Sometimes it was our veteran mentor who came to the rescue. More often than not it was a student who could educate everyone.
  • I think the best part about the trip and NITARP as a whole is the chance to do authentic research and learn the methods and techniques used to tease as much information out of the data as possible. It still amazes me (and this is what I try to instill in the students in my astronomy classes) that we can learn so much from a tiny point of light if we are just cleaver enough to know how to look at it.
  • [student: The most surprising thing] is that I am learning to use these complex tools and programs.
  • [This trip] did have a big impact on what my students thought – it was very eye-opening for them to see that astronomers were not stuck in front of a telescope all night, have high computer skills but can also not understand all of what a particular program does or how, and are ‘normal’. Great for them.
  • [Three best things about this trip:] Learning a new skill and the great gains in understanding and knowledge about the subject. Watching the students from a wide variety of locations and background come together and form friendships, working relationships, and build support for the project and each other. Getting the opportunity to work on a project such as this with other educators from various disciplines and backgrounds come together to form friendships, working relationships, and build support for the project and each other.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2013 - C-CWEL