• NASA
  • IPAC

AAS - 2018

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 2017 and 2018 NITARP teams attended the 2018 January AAS meeting in National Harbor, MD. The 2017 class was presenting results and the 2018 class was starting up. We had 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

  • The reality is that the US needs more programs like NITARP, and should consider ways to make it easier for organizers of these programs to renew and grow what works. These programs need to be supported financially to encourage more secondary teachers to join, and also help high school students consider futures in STEM fields.
  • [student:] Before this experience I wasn’t planning on going to college right after high school. I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I didn’t want to spend thousands on college without complete confidence of my direction. But now I’ve decided on my major and I [...] feel I can credit that mostly to my experience with this program. Getting to see what a career in physics looks like, and hearing from professionals about their careers from college until the present was a great help to me
  • I was very impressed with how supportive and congenial astronomers are, and I have much more confidence as a high school astronomy teacher as a result of this support.
  • This experience has helped me to see Astronomers as people who are just like me, but have a different area of expertise. They are approachable for the most part and want to share their experiences and research.
  • [student:] Going to this conference gave me a much better understanding and prospective of the work astronomers do, and what it means to be an astronomer.

AAS - 2018