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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:] This project – all of it – has also changed the way that I see the classroom and what it can be. It has changed the way I see classwork and work that I see as ‘hard’. I also see that I have a more open mind now and bigger view of the world and what I can do.
  • It was delight to watch the students explain the poster – usually followed by shock as the person listening noticed they were middle and high school students! Here is to the next generation – they are amazing.
  • It seems to me that programs like NITARP and other engaging education programs need to be studied/analyzed and results used to drive new programs, both in high school and college. We can’t depend on student interest only to supply the next generation of astronomers. We need to be actively engaged in that task. I am surprised that so few astronomers see the urgency of the need.
  • [student:] While I knew that the whole convention was going to be full of people, I didn’t expect it to be so ridiculously full. Nor did I expect to see so many people from areas all across the globe. American Astronomical Society kinda just makes you think “United States”.
  • I was again reminded of how eye-opening a conference like this can be to a high school student with limited experience outside their home area. For them, the sessions presented were a view into a world they really didn’t know even existed. They were quick to recognize and admit that they largely knew nothing about what was presented in the sessions – but they were just as quick to talk about the fact that they were interested, curious, and wanted to figure out more. The poster sessions also provide opportunity for them to see themselves as potentially having a place among those attending and presenting. They were able to find people that they could talk to about the things the heard about in the talks and learn more. When they presented their own work it was amazing to see how much their confidence and abilities grew.

Related Teams

AAS - 2014