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Summer Visit - 2015 - LADDT

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 LADDT team came to visit in June 2015. The core team educators attended, plus 14 students.

Quotes

  • The best part of the trip besides watching the students interact with each other would have to be participating in actual research. Making analysis mistakes, regrouping and getting back to work. I really enjoyed the authenticity of the experience.
  • Another moment of frustration involved several hours of calculations based on misinterpretation of data and formulas. It was a wonderfully humbling learning experience for all of us involved. The student especially seemed to appreciate seeing their teachers hit the dead end and have to do an about face.
  • [student:] Some of the graphs and charts confused me at some point, but I was eventually able to work through it once it was explained to me. The support system that we had as a whole was amazing. If I got confused at any point someone would help me. Mostly the teachers helped with the information as a whole, but many students helped with my problems with excel.
  • [student:] this trip has showed me that you may not know where you want to go or what type of science it'll be okay as long as you are doing something you love. It has completely changed my perspective on astronomy and astronomers as a whole.
  • [student:] I thought working together at Caltech enabled us to become more comfortable with one another and we were able to work together and share ideas and collaborate which made our time and our work more meaningful. We could communicate about which combinations worked or didn’t work or tips about excel. After the visit, I think the group bonded quite a bit and now we’re a much more cohesive team than before the trip.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2015 - LADDT