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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

  • [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.
  • [student:] I think all astronomers must be curious, not afraid of work, hardworking, and must care about what they do.
  • The use of large data bases of information like IRSA are a great tool and I have come to understand that large databases are a more important source of astronomy and science research than I believed before or believe the general population understands. I like getting to understand how to use these tools.
  • Overall, *all* of my experiences with real scientists, especially those who work in the field to collect data, contradict the simple model of the hypothesis-experiment-conclusion that textbooks taught me and (attempt) to teach students even to this day.
  • [student:] I think that patience and dedication are important for an astronomer because astronomy is a long process. I think that being able to communicate and ask for help are also extremely important because astronomy includes a lot of people looking at the same thing and seeing different details that need to be shared.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2016 - LLAMMa