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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:

Returning Alumni Teams:

 

Quotes

  • Before NITARP, I didn’t really know how much I enjoyed doing research. I had done it before (in grad school and afterwards with RBSE), but it really hit home how enjoyable it was for me once I got involved with the NITARP program. I really like doing it and I plan on continuing with it.
  • Watching the kids from different schools interact was one of my favorite parts of this experience that I completely didn’t anticipate. The kids came from totally different worlds and they had a commonality (loving astronomy/ research, and being nerds) but otherwise their lives weren’t necessarily similar. This is a huge benefit of the NITARP program, and although not a stated program goal, I believe it has tremendous value.
  • I didn't really expect the poster sessions to be as crowded or as enthusiastic as they were. People were very excited to share what they were learning about and people were really excited to ask questions about it.
  • I am trying to make my astronomy class more discussion-based and trying to make it more inquiry-based. I was able to network with other teachers and got some ideas of how to move away from lecture. Although lecture has some usefulness I really want to try to be more inquiry driven.
  • [student:] Initially, I wanted to pursue a career in either music education or performance as a part of the more classical community of music. The AAS conference changed that. I have never before in my life seen a more collaborative group than the AAS. The support I had while presenting my poster was unreal. This made me reflect on my pursuits in music. That community could not be any more critical or degrading than it already is. I want music in my life, but I never want to be a part of that community. This experience set me on a path, one that might one day lead me to the forefront of human knowledge hopefully for me to help push that boundary.

Related Teams

AAS - 2019