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:

2016 teams:
- Science Poster - Orr et al., "Finding High Quality Young Star Candidates in Ceph C Using X-ray, Optical, and IR Data"
- Education Poster - Orr et al., "STEM Education is Missing This ..."
- Science Poster - Kilts et al., "Searching for Short-Term Variable Active Galactic Nuclei: A Vital Step Towards Using AGN as Standard Candles"
- Education Poster - Kohrs et al., "NITARP: Changing Perceptions of Science Among Secondary Students and Teachers"
Returning Alumni teams:
- Education Poster - Bensel & Cool, "Are We Alone? GAVRT Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Project"
- Education Poster - Tran et al., "Analysis of Visual Double Stars"
- Science Poster - Johnson et al., "An Infrared Search for Young Stellar Objects in IC 1396"
- Science Poster - Wilson et al., "Searching for Infrared Excesses around White Dwarf Stars"
- Education Poster - Linder et al., "Confirming and Improving Ross Variable Star RV Del"
- Science Poster - Linder et al., "Rotational Study of Ambiguous Taxonomic Classified Asteroids"
NITARP Management:
- Evaluations And Impact (presented as education poster): Rebull et al., "The NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP): Lessons Learned"

Quotes

[student:] I would say that I learned how to do research, understand space and the formation of stars, how data from telescopes is used, how to be more confident, how to ask more questions, and how to work better in a team. I experienced the joy of discovering my passion, and I started on a path to my dream job.
[student:] I did not anticipate the work dynamic between the teachers and students. I anticipated to simply be a participant in the research progress while the teachers would relay the “actual” work to the students. I was pleasantly surprised, and in fact elated, that I was just as vital to the project as my teachers. I felt truly valued, and I am eternally grateful for the level of respect that I received. Although it was not anticipated, the interactions between students and mentors was my favorite part of the program.
I really feel that NITARP is a model that needs to be replicated in some fashion for teachers (in any field, really) everywhere. How can teachers effectively teach STEM, particularly, in this new environment without really having done research themselves? Most STEM programs are good at introducing teachers to engineering. What we need now are programs, like NITARP, that get teachers involved in real science.
I knew I would like attending AAS, but even though I didn’t understand all the information presented in the various talks, I really, really, liked listening to them.
I was encouraged by the level of respect among astronomers – it was more than I could have imagined. They would listen to each others’ models with a level of support hanging in the air. It seemed like a community where most, if not everyone, had the same goal of better understanding.

AAS - 2017

Quotes

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