• NASA
  • IPAC

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

  • I told my students that I had two big take-aways related to the classroom. The first was the realization that science is never really done. Even though we presented our work, there is still more extension work to be done. Also, I gained experience in learning from failure and authentic use of the scientific method. For example, most labs that we do in my class have pre-determined endings. However, in this experience, we there was not a predetermined ending. We got to make decisions along the way that led to authentic results.
  • [student:] I think the most interesting thing was to see the number of females within the astronomy community as it feels as though women go underrepresented in many science fields. I did not anticipate as many women to be at IPAC or at AAS and I enjoyed seeing that.
  • I did not anticipate the confidence that I would gain through the experience. There was so much information overload at the first AAS that I was a little overwhelmed. But, I didn’t realize how much I’d learned over the year until I went to the year 2 AAS.
  • As an educator, at times it can feel like you are isolated or on your own. I knew that NITARP is a team but for once I felt like I was part of something bigger than just me. I know now the true meaning of teamwork especially as it relates to science research. I am very proud to be considered a part of [our] team. I knew that there would be teamwork but I did not anticipate how cohesively we would come together. This was truly a very rewarding experience.
  • I also thought the science was extremely cut-throat and reclusive, when the exact opposite is true. People have to work together to accomplish large tasks, share new findings, and support future research. I was amazed at the diversity of personnel [...] and comradery in the field.

Related Teams

AAS - 2020