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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 experience changed my views not just about astronomy, but science in general because it showed me just how much little things interact with each other and form a big picture understanding. This will change the way I look at almost all my subjects, as now I will start thinking from the get-go where everything fits in the goal I am trying to achieve, whether it be economics or physics.
  • [student:] This experience changed the way I thought about astronomy. Originally, I honestly thought it was pointless. I mean what could have been so important looking up at the stars? I realized how terribly wrong I was when I started going to the many different talks. What I found out is that we need astronomy. Astronomy, from what I have gathered, can tell us about the past of the universe, and predictions on the future. We have created tools that can literally see and reconstruct what the past sky looked like as well as project what the future of our solar system will become! Astronomy is an amazing field, and we have only unlocked a very small portion of what the universe is like. Given time we might one day understand what is really going on out there.
  • I think that my NITARP experience is one of the best things that I have ever done in my life, both as an educator and as an individual. I have found that I really like doing research and plan to continue that in the future both with my students and as an individual.
  • 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.
  • [student:] After going to AAS, I was more inclined to involve myself in astronomy in the future.

Related Teams

AAS - 2014