AAS - 2021

Quotes

• [student:] Experiences such as NITARP help start teachers and students down a road of curiosity. If there is one thing I’ll remember doing in NITARP, it’ll be asking questions. Instead of sitting in silence wondering what to do, I was encouraged to ask questions, and when that happened, I would always get a reply that sparked my curiosity even further. Having the ability to observe the world around me and wonder how it works is something that would not have happened without NITARP.
• [student:] I had no clue so much math and analysis went into astronomy and I definitely got to learn something I couldn’t have otherwise.
• [student:] I've never had any formal classes in astronomy. I always figured it was similar to cartography, or just making big maps of the sky. I thought it would require a lot of memorizing, like when I had to memorize the solar system in fourth grade. But during this process I learned about the science behind astronomy.
• The whole year was as much, and more, than I could have expected… the story arc of a real research project means that we faced off with unforeseen forces, confusing data, limits in our knowledge, and other demands on our time. And, as real as it gets, we had to step up, step in, and take all of these on in order to move the work forward.
• [student:] Experiences like NITARP teach participants to take responsibility for their own learning. For example., If I wanted to get good at the software we used for this project, the onus was on me to practice and learn it. There was no grade nor enforcer making me. I think this accountability to one’s self is valuable, and absent from current education systems. Experience like NITARP teach participants how to teach themselves and learn on their own whereas traditional school often just drags students along to where they have to be without regard to the underlying quality of the students learning.

Related Teams

• OIRMA/Gorjian
• Spider/Rebull