• NASA
  • IPAC

AAS - 2017

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 2016 and 2017 NITARP teams attended the 2017 January AAS meeting in Dallas, TX. The 2016 class was presenting results and the 2017 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. All of the posters we presented are here:


Quotes

  • Teachers are energized and inspired by the program[..] Working on real questions of Astronomy, and using quantitative tools to understand truly awesome phenomenae reminds us of what excited us as undergrads, back at the beginning of our professional journeys. And spending a week working side by side with our most motivated students reminds of the true joy of teaching, which is to share the wonder of this world with a new generation.
  • [student:] I plan to attend college and major in astrophysics. I hope to someday work for NASA or a private research facility. This experience gave me the confidence I needed to solidify these career goals, transforming my fear into impatience.
  • I got to re-experience what it's like to be a student faced with a difficult challenge; the wondering whether or not to ask a question; the struggle to make sense of the work being done by others around me.. I think these experiences will make me a more empathetic and effective teacher.
  • This is an authentic scientific experience that provides students the opportunity to do real science, build professional relationships, practice 21st century skills, work with many different individuals and speak publicly about their work. It is everything a science program plans to teach students in a typical 4-year high school program, all in one experience.
  • Before attending AAS, I didn’t realize astronomy was so “specialized.” I thought about astronomy in general terms, but didn’t realize how narrowly focused astronomy can be (stellar astronomy, cosmology, astrobiology, etc.).

AAS - 2017