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AAS - 2020

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 2019 and 2020 NITARP teams attended the 2020 January AAS meeting in Honolulu, HI. The 2019 class was presenting results and the 2020 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:

2019 Teams:

NITARP Management:

Returning Alumni Teams:

Quotes

  • [student:] The experience will help me with moments where I feel over my head. Previous to NITARP, if there was a moment in class, I really just had no idea what was going on, I would give up, stop paying attention, and just vow to pick up the information from the start another time. I learned through our initial virtual meetings that just does not work very well. Efficient notetaking, even when I don’t really understand what’s being said is a skill I’ll take with me for a long time.
  • This experience has increased my self-efficacy. I know now that I can do it. I know that sounds funny but I have a renewed sense of ability and drive. I think I had lulled myself into “good enough” and this experience has shown me what is possible.
  • [student: Now,] I feel inspired to work harder and to push myself farther not only in school but throughout my career as well. I also learned that there are many similarities between astronomy and electrical technology. Understanding the data transferred into applications I am learning in the electrical field. Interesting! The sky is no longer the limit.
  • You cannot learn the process of science research passively. Being immersed into your own astronomical research with the NITARP program is the only way to learn how real scientific research is done.
  • [student:] The most interesting thing I learned is the fact that the astronomy community, including the astronomers at NITARP, were very collaborative and certainly friendly. I usually just assumed astronomers kept to themselves and/or thought that they were too good to help a high school student like me understand their research. This welcoming community did not at all follow my expectations and showed me that the professional astronomy field, and hopefully other STEM fields, are friendly.

Related Teams

AAS - 2020