• NASA
  • IPAC

Summer Visit - 2017 - CephC:LABS

The summer visit to Caltech is 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 CephC-LABS team came to visit in June 2017. The core team educators attended, plus 5 students.


Quotes

  • [student:] Everything could not have been done online, since we were able to be together we could much more easily help one another and actually trust one another. The group became much closer after spending a week together and I feel like we became very good friends.
  • No, [this work] could not have been done online and had the same effect. Online has too many limitations. The amount of information was vast. Although, after the visit, the online will take on a new dimension. The trip activated us all in ways, (although we will be negotiating the startup of school for a few weeks), that if we can be patient, should result in higher motivation levels and a deeper sense of commitment by all involved. It was also good to learn the personalities of the students. We learned a lot in a short amount of time, and the students would never had been up to speed / gaps in knowledge, without the face-to-face time.
  • [student:] I was confused a great deal during the process! I honestly think that it is EXTRAORDINARILY hard to NOT get confused/frustrated during this! With the help of my teammates, I did work through it in a timely manner. Honestly, I loved being confused. I knew that finding the answer to the question that plagued me would help farther along. I got more than enough support! I liked being able to ask questions, and, yes, I could definitely still use the support!
  • [student:] I think the most interesting thing we did was the photometry. I love being able to learn so much from just a few numbers and using some math.
  • [student:] I don’t think I could handle the work if it was done online. I think it was almost crucia, at least for me, to all be in the same room as we learned what we were doing and tried it for the first time.

Summer Visit - 2017 - CephC:LABS