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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

  • I did not realize how much I would enjoy the experience. I know this sounds weird but [...] “astronomy is my weakest science”. I wanted to be a supporter of all sciences and that strategy is difficult when you do not “see” yourself as being an astronomy researcher/ scientist. I believe I felt this way because I had never been immersed in a group of people so in love with the discipline. I was constantly making easy connections with biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. I walk away from this experience better able to help my students, and in turn their [future] students, understand how accessible the field is for anyone. There are literally countless ways that astronomy can relate to one’s life and future career path.
  • I would not have been able to do this on my own. It wouldn’t have even occurred to me to try! Being a part of this group provided the instruction, encouragement, and feedback necessary to get started, and to work through the challenges.
  • [student:] NITARP showed me that astronomy means more than looking up at the sky, and it also showed me that astronomers, and especially the ones at NITARP, are friendly and collaborative. Also, to add on, it showed me that astronomers are surprisingly sociable, and that astronomy requires communication skills considering they must present their research.
  • [student:] I definitely will take more chances at doing “hard” things and things that challenge me. I think I was stuck doing what was comfortable and not really challenging myself but this showed me that I can do really complicated things that are “outside” my major.
  • [As a result of this experience,] In my engineering course, I’ve revised the labs to generate more data, and am building more Excel work into the projects. In Algebra, I’m finding more opportunities to use Excel, and in Geometry I’m incorporating astronomical concepts and experiences.

Related Teams

AAS - 2020