AAS - 2019

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 2018 and 2019 NITARP teams attended the 2019 January AAS meeting in Seattle, WA. The 2018 class was presenting results and the 2019 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:

2018 Teams:

NITARP Management:

Education Poster - Rebull, "A Way to Categorize Programs that Bring Data to the Classroom"

Returning Alumni Teams:

Quotes

I think a great outcome of this was simply seeing how well the kids could come together to address this problem. Additionally, I would stress the value in being able to communicate scientific ideas with people in other parts of the country. It was an amazing experience unlike anything else that I have experienced in my education so far. I teach in a small rural city so it is really nice to see how people in the larger districts addressed various social and academic issues. Since I focused my undergrad on education I didn't have much time doing authentic research, something that I felt I as definitely missing in my classes since I was not able to give them real life examples that I had on how research could be used.
[student:] The whole NITARP experience changed my perspective and increased my passion for astronomy.
[student:] [NITARP is] truly a once in a lifetime experience. The friendships and connects that I made throughout this program would have never happened without it. It truly opens students to new experiences and helps them figure out what they want to do later in life. Along with that, AAS was a massive learning experience for anyone with an interest in astronomy. It’s just at a level of knowledge that you can’t get while in high school without this opportunity.
What an amazing experience (head is still swimming).
My thoughts about astronomy in general, and NITARP in particular, have changed throughout the [several years] with which I have been involved with NITARP. When I first started, I was only vaguely aware that astronomers used large archival databases with which to do their research—I was sort of the mind-set that most of them still collected their own data in some fashion, either with a telescope or some sort of orbiting observatory. I now know that that is definitely not the case. Also, I always felt that I had a good working knowledge of astronomy and how things were done—after my time in NITARP I know that that was not always true— my NITARP experience has expanded both my knowledge and my capabilities by a tremendous amount. I’m now able to undertake projects, both personally and with my students, that I would have been unable to do just a few years ago.

AAS - 2019

Quotes

Related Teams