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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

  • Real astronomy goes beyond pretty pictures, which are only representative images. I was not expecting to do photometry but am sure glad we did. That is a tool I will be employing in my classes to give students a deeper understanding of what the data means and where it comes from.
  • [Real astronomy is] Lots of numbers and lots of math. I figures there would be calculations but not so much.
  • Team build, team build, team build. The work is so much more successful and enjoyable if you build the trust.
  • [student:] I was not surprised that the data wasn’t perfect on the first plot we made, and that it takes many more tries and many combinations if you want to find something that you can use to support your hypothesis.
  • Astronomers need to be curious and persistent. Persistence might involve anything from seeking funding sources to awaiting new technologies that could provide the data you need.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2015 - LADDT