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:] [...] 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 made me really hungry for intense, in-depth experiences—I can no longer imagine doing the sort of basic PD sessions that many local school systems offer to their teachers.
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.
I was never able to pursue any formal instruction in astronomy so it always seemed out of reach and astronomers seemed beyond my scope. This experience opened my eyes and alleviated a lot of the hesitancy I felt in pursuing something I’ve always enjoyed and been passionate about.
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.

AAS - 2019

Quotes

Related Teams