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

[student:] There is no way that I could have even imagined doing a project like this without the guidance that I had. Now, after the fact I believe that with some fluency in python that I could do our project in a mere fraction of the time that we spent collaboratively. The fact that others had to depend on me getting my work done was a big motivation. Another was my passion for learning, especially when I had the opportunity to apply it. I could not have learned or applied anything of this project without guidance, I would simply be wandering blindly.
[student:] [...] plenary lecture on gravitational wave detection. I expected something completely different from what I learned and realized there. I had no clue how much of an effort over such a long time has gone into it. For some of them, it was their life’s work and they never got to even see the day that we had accomplished only a single detection. That realization is good and all, but the biggest thing that interested me was the way it got me thinking. It is an entirely new way to do astronomy. A new way to look at the universe. Who knows what this could bring? What other ways will we discover? Will I be a part of that? It sprung an endless wave of questions, and settled a completely unrealistic and unfounded fear of mine that science is approaching a ceiling.
NITARP has impacted my own development of and participation in professional learning experiences because I’ve seen first hand how important it is to be “in” the experience. You truly learn best by doing and NITARP provides that in a way most other programs I’ve participated in do not.
This will be a tough professional development to beat. Not only did I make a great network with other educators, but it reinforced the importance of inquiry-based learning and the importance of there not always being an answer.
[the most interesting thing was] Taking something that seemed so beyond my realm of expertise and experience and making it a reality. When I began the project, I thought that this was going to be a year of just getting by and hoping that no one noticed I had no idea what I was doing, but it turned out I really got involved and learned.

AAS - 2019

Quotes

Related Teams