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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

  • The best thing about the trip was getting to spend time together working. I enjoyed watching the kids get to know each other and the other adults. I watched them grow in confidence and it made me feel very accomplished. Even though I was exhausted at the end of every day, it was well spent time and that face-to-face block of time was necessary for making sure my students and I understood everything.
  • I wasn’t sure exactly what else, besides looking through telescopes, astronomers really did. I see now that a lot of astronomy can be done without being near any instruments that collect the data!
  • 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.
  • ‘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:] I don’t think our work at Caltech would have been possible online. While in the room, we were able to ask questions, collaborate, and work in groups. We also got a chance to meet the rest of our team in person. All of this would be very difficult to do online.

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Summer Visit - 2016 - LLAMMa