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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:] I've always thought that astronomy involved looking through telescopes in some manner, and was almost completely blindsided when we spent all of our time in front of a computer. I was pleasantly surprised!!
  • I really enjoyed the role of the artists and computer savvy in communicating the science. Astronomers have done a great job of improving the communication and education through various visual representations.
  • Real astronomy is looking at data, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions. Real astronomers collaborate with other astronomers to verify their findings. Everything we did on this trip was scientific research; looking at data, analyzing data using different tools, collaboration, and drawing conclusions.
  • I think it was really important for us to spend a substantial amount of time together, get to know one another, struggle with concepts together, and work toward a common goal. Online hangouts are a decent (and cheaper $ !) substitute, but can’t replace face to face interaction and problem solving. Also, physically being at a college campus or at JPL is a powerful experience for our students. I expected our group to feel more cohesive after the trip and I definitely think we left California as a stronger team.
  • [Real astronomy is] Using physical evidence to construct models about the universe. Lots of computer screen time. A back and forth, non-linear process. One of the coolest things one can do with one’s time here on spaceship earth.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2017 - CephC:LABS