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Summer Visit - 2012 - ColdSpotz

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The Cold Spotz team came to visit in June 2012. The core team educators plus 8 students attended.

Quotes

  • The most surprising thing that I learned was that I could finally look at the data we were dealing with and make sense of it.
  • [student:] The most important thing for me on this trip was listening to different astronomers talk about their careers, but this was important not because it made me want to be an astronomer, but because it made me confident in the fact that I didn't want to be one. Knowing that this wasn't my future and that my life didn't depend on the work I do in this program allowed me to enjoy the project we were working on as something I'm interested in, not something I have to be perfect at.
  • I am so surprised that after working my brain for many hours each day, I could understand what [we were talking about]. While I am a teacher and love astronomy, I am not up on all of the terms, and even [the] concepts that we used so readily. I am surprised that my brain clicked over and got is quickly (relatively speaking) and that by the end of the week, I too was speaking in these ways.
  • The best thing about this trip was watching the confidence level rise in each participant. [..] By the end of the week, my two students felt so much more confident in their Excel abilities that they were helping others write formulas to make calculations easier. It was also exhilarating to witness [the other] teachers gain faith in their understanding of the project, as well.
  • [student:] The best thing about the trip was being able to expand my knowledge about space and because of that being able to narrow down on a career.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2012 - ColdSpotz