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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

  • 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.
  • I think the most interesting and important thing I learned was how this project was going to all come together. I finally understood exactly what we were doing and why.
  • [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.
  • 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.
  • Real astronomy isn't just looking through telescopes with the naked eye anymore. It is really being accurate and precise and a lot of computer mathematics. I am glad I get to share this idea with students that this is what it is really like out there in the science and technology fields.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2012 - ColdSpotz