• 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 [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.
  • 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:] This experience has changed my career plans by directing me in the direction of a research-based career. [...] This experience, especially the conference, has made extremely excited for college and has made me seriously consider graduate school.
  • [student:] This experience made me realize how many jobs are under the umbrella of astronomy – how many different things you can do and learn under that umbrella. You could have any number of skills or interests and still be able to work in astronomy.

Related Teams

AAS - 2020