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Summer Visit - 2016 - LLAMMa

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 LLAMMa team came to visit in July 2016. The 3 core team educators attended, plus 11 students.

Quotes

  • It was a real team spirit amongst all three schools. My students were really proud of the work they did and all they learned.
  • ‘Real’ astronomy is not the myth of staying up all night looking through a telescope. It is more so working with data to ask and solve questions. A lot of computer skill is needed.
  • [student:] The most surprising thing to me was how relaxed it was. I was expecting a “cookbook” experience and instead we were given the tools and then figured it out ourselves. I really liked that and I think I understood everything better because of it.
  • I do not think that the work done at Caltech as a team could be done online as effectively as it is in person. The work takes time with team members face to face as we learn and start the processes that make up the bulk of the work. I believe that that time together is very valuable.
  • The most important thing I saw from the meeting was the growth in the students – not just in understanding the subject and science behind the project but in the levels of confidence and belief they were developing in their abilities and understanding of the real process of science.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2016 - LLAMMa