Summer "Visit" - 2020 - Spider Team

Quotes

• The summer NITARP experience reaffirmed the incredible power of collaborative construction of knowledge and understanding. Astronomers have so much data available to them that it is overwhelming if not processed in small doses. [...] I have always known about the collaborative nature of science, but this experience has really made it clear how powerful it is as a check on erroneous understanding, poorly thought out processes, and simple error in work product. [...] I now see how much better the quality of the work is because of the collaborative process.
• Working together is a must. Multiple eyes, opinions, strengths, needs, etc were all on display. Students stepped up at different times in different ways.
• I was most surprised at how well the students picked up the material. I can only speak with great deal about my own students, but overall the amount of silence that was present leading up to the conference convinced me that we’d have to spend conference time reinforcing the underlying science. Great job for [the] educators in getting our students ready to go.
• The summer meeting was the essential moment that transformed all of the separate pieces of our knowledge and skill building into an integrated and meaningful process for carrying out our research project. Seeing this all come together over these precious days together, even with the challenges and limitations of a Zoom environment, felt awesome. The final day of independent discussion without Luisa was a critical element in producing this transformation. We HAD to figure out our process. This is as authentic of an “assessment” as we could have regarding the week's progress.
• [the qualities of an astronomer are:] Math and patience. Maybe not in that order.

Related Teams

• Spider/Rebull