AAS - 2021

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. This year, the pandemic forced the Jan 2021 meeting online, and meant that we didn't select a new class for 2021, so only one class is attending the online AAS.

The 2020 NITARP teams attended the 2021 January AAS. We sent about 30 people to the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here:

2020 Teams:

Science Poster - McElroy et al., "OIRMA: Optical Infrared Reverberation Mapping of AGN"
Science Poster - Anderson, et al., "Identifying Candidate Young Stellar Objects in the Spider Nebula (IC 417) Using Archival Visible and Infrared Data"
Education Poster - Rodriguez et al., "Methods for Retention and Promoting Self-Efficacy in Secondary Students in Astronomical Research"
Education Poster - Sharif et al., "Rich Experiential Education in a Remote Setting by NITARP"

Also see video "turbo talks" from ORMA team : science and education.

Quotes

This experience definitely gave me a better understanding for what goes into Astronomical research. It opened my eyes to all of the different areas of study, the level of research and amount of collaboration that goes into it. It also helped me understand the sheer quantity of astronomical tools that are used.
[student:] [This project] showed me the importance of not only performing authentic research, but also by communicating it and involving interested parties that are not professional astronomers.
[student:] I wish my classes were taught with more focus on understanding and retention than just throwing spaghetti at students’ brains and hoping it sticks. With NITARP, I enjoyed the focus on retention and understanding taught through practical application as opposed to the pasta-flinging method familiar in school classrooms.
Bracketing the NITARP experience between an opening and a closing AAS meeting empowers us as participants to see that the process we are developing and the research we are doing is legitimate. The opening meeting sets a model in our minds for what the end of the project will look like. The closing meeting makes us defend our work… the real closure on science… peer review! The overall experience makes it clear to me that I am in the right place professionally. I love the research process.
[From NITARP,] Teachers learn what it is to be overwhelmed by new material that the presenters have long ago mastered. This humbling experience is profound and deepens empathy with students, and leads to better teaching.

We're back from the Jan 2025 AAS and we had a grand time!

AAS - 2021

Quotes

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