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Summer "Visit" - 2020 - OIRMA

Our regular summer visit to Caltech was hijacked by COVID-19. So we did an online work week instead -- 4 days when all the participants on the team come together to work intensively on the data. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

OIRMA worked July 5-9, 2020. The 5 core team educators attended, plus 6 students.


Quotes

  • The program has been transformational for me professionally.
  • [student:] The best thing about the week was that I as a student was able to help out and contribute ideas to the project. I was not just being told what to do, but I had the opportunity to actually help solve problems and find solutions.
  • [...]the program creates an in-practice glimpse of what it can be like to work with students in a radically different way from how we do in the standard classroom. Not knowing the answer is a powerful interpersonal equalizer. And that leveling is not an ornamental feature or political nicety, it’s a critical precursor to collaboration in a group of educators and students.
  • I was most surprised by the students’ ability to keep up (no offense to them). I really felt that students, instructors, and astronomer were all on the same footing and able to contribute and ask questions freely. I had worried about power dynamics in the group, since only one of us does astronomy research professionally, but I was pleasantly surprised at our ability to form a cohesive team so quickly.
  • Best thing was the collaboration with all involved and the students being more like peers.

Summer "Visit" - 2020 - OIRMA