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AAS - 2016

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 2015 and 2016 NITARP teams attended the 2016 January AAS meeting in Kissimmee, FL. The 2015 class was presenting results and the 2016 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, and a special article on NITARP alumni at the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here:

Quotes

  • [student:] It’s very rare that high school students actually get the chance to experience something this real in science class. All the labs have predetermined right answers, which is great for teaching content, but real science doesn’t have a “right” answer, it’s about finding new answers, challenging the old answers. Science isn’t about being “right” it’s more about “what if?” and “I wonder”. It’s new to not have to worry if you have the “right” answer.
  • I have always done hands-on science in my classroom. I see that only scratches the surface of students’ experiences. I want to create a more adventurous experience by having them work with real data and doing some real research projects.
  • I was nearly moved to tears watching the students share our research at the poster session. I was expecting them to act more like disinterested teenagers but they certainly did not. Their enthusiasm was infectious. I wish I had videotaped the entire poster session to share with all my other students.
  • The other unanticipated occurrence for me was the empty feeling of being done with the NITARP experience but having a strong desire to continue working on our project. We had put so much time into it and now there is a large void in my life, especially Monday evenings when we had our telecon.
  • [student:] This program has made me want to be the smartest I can be and never stop learning. I want to be be knowledgable about everything (an impossible task) and this experience has taught me to self educate and never stop looking for an answer and a new question.

Related Teams

AAS - 2016