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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:] I think this will change the way I take in information and take notes in the classroom. I know now that even if things go over my head immediately I can come back and understand them better if I put in time and effort. I also realized the importance of taking notes not only on what I am learning but also writing down any questions I have so that I can ask them later and improve my understanding.
  • [student:] I think [this experience] changed my whole perspective on scientific research in general. People often tell you about how science is a lot of trial and error, but you never really experience that in a class setting where all your labs are pre-planned. This experience really shed a new light on that process and made the idea of doing new research less daunting.
  • 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:] I didn't anticipate was that people would really want to interact with our poster. It was really cool how people would ask questions, make suggestions, and talk about their own research and how it related to ours.
  • [student:] I’ve always been interested in space, but I wasn’t ever sure of what I really wanted to do. When I was probably ten, I used to say I wanted to be an astronomer. As I grew older that idea sort of faded because I ended up connecting it things like ancient Greeks, and a science whose importance has faded. NITARP really showed me that there are a lot more avenues to astronomy that I had thought.

Related Teams

AAS - 2020