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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

  • Astronomers are a lot nicer than I thought they would be, and they’re much more willing to chat about their research than I expected.
  • [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.
  • NITARP inspires and empowers relevant and rigorous STEM curricular creativity. Teachers learn to use the same assets and tools as scientist, gain experience with scientific research culture and come away with the ability to lead their students in a research opportunity.
  • [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.
  • [student:] I was not anticipating that so many people would be interested in what we - high school kids – did and that we were there [at AAS]. That was really cool

Related Teams

AAS - 2019