• 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 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.
  • We did not anticipate getting all of the way through our selection process and then find that a crucial step used invalid data! But it was very satisfying to step back, and figure out a process that would give us useful results in the end. It was a great way to experience for ourselves the fact that it is normal to encounter obstacles in research.
  • [student:] I also know that because I was learning alongside my professor it showed me as a student that it is okay for me not to have all of the answers and I think working through a new problem with my [own future] students can help them to see that “failing” and making mistakes is okay and encouraged because there were times that we didn’t know what the next step we needed to take was but we eventually found the way and we learned more doing that.
  • I feel very privileged to have been a part of the NITARP experience as well as other opportunities I have had with NASA in education. This is one of the many benefits to the education field, the chance to work with professionals in other fields so that we can bring knowledge and experiences gained into our classrooms for students to see.
  • 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.

Related Teams

AAS - 2020