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AAS - 2014

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.

The 2013 and 2014 NITARP teams attended the 2014 January AAS meeting in National Harbor, MD (outside of Washington, DC). The 2013 class was presenting results and the 2014 class was starting up. We had a lot of alumni raise their own money to come back as well. We sent about 75 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. One of our participants, Peggy Piper, participated in a Congressional briefing on Thursday! All the posters we presented are linked from the team's pages below, except for HG-WELS and SIRXS, because they are the two new teams.

Quotes

  • [student:] The most interesting thing I learned that conventions are at least as social as they are scientific events.
  • Big changes for me: I am already much more committed to having my top students conduct high end research. I am more committed to having ALL my students ASK and ANSWER their own questions more often. I wonder how I can package this experience to share with other teachers.
  • I also found that I really enjoy the camaraderie that exists between me and the other teachers in my group—we fit together really well and enjoy one another’s company very much. I found that these teachers from other parts of the country were just like me in a lot of ways.
  • [student:] Going into the convention center, I was a bit overwhelmed and intimidated by all the astronomers and astrophysicists that were there. To my surprise, I found that everyone was very inviting and inquisitive about his or her research, and mine.
  • Overall, this experience was one of the best experiences educationally, personally and professionally. It was great to be part of a project and it forced me to learn, very quickly. I liked how I didn’t know everything about my project to begin with. It made me become a better learner because I was asking the questions for understanding the content. In the end, I was in charge of my learning and I learned so much because of it.

Related Teams

AAS - 2014