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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 NITARP experience has already changed the way I work in my classroom. I try to provide actual data to my students to use whether we are studying Earth science, physics, or astronomy. I also have changed my lab exercises so that it requires students to develop their own strategies to solve a problem. I also have reworked many labs so there isn’t a finite, correct answer.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • [NITARP helps] Teachers learn that they are not alone and isolated like we often feel being in our classrooms by ourselves the majority of our career and that we need experiences like this to help us grow and try new things. Teachers learn that they can be of use in the research community. We learn that you don’t have to live in the same town to be part of a team that can accomplish a project.
  • I plan on using this to try to foster more of an acceptance of Astronomy being a viable path for a career. My district tends to promote life science over the physical sciences. I want to use what I have learned to support more research into astronomy.

AAS - 2018