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AAS - 2015

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 2014 and 2015 NITARP teams attended the 2015 January AAS meeting in Seattle, WA. The 2014 class was presenting results and the 2015 class was starting up. We had many alumni raise money to come back as well. We sent about 50 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here:

Quotes

  • [student:] All of the astronomers that I met were a lot friendlier than I anticipated.
  • [student:] I was worried I wouldn't understand anything or that I wouldn't be able to answer questions asked of me. I felt none of these things, and everyone was super friendly, nice, and personable.
  • [student]: I did not anticipate the overall goal of the project to change. However, I now know this is to be expected in a real research project.
  • [student:] I don't always have to be right to be successful. Sometimes, it's okay to take several roads and make mistakes, as long as there is a somewhat clear goal in mind and a will to work.
  • I already had a pretty good idea of how astronomers do science, but NITARP helped me see more exactly how data is collected, processed, and analyzed. It helped me also see that I can do astronomy myself, and can make a contribution beyond my own classroom. Not only can I analyze astronomical data to find scientifically useful results, but I can publish my work as a poster and be part of this community. I did not feel like a stranger or usurper or even out of place – it felt like I belonged.

Related Teams

AAS - 2015