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

[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.
Young people need to be exposed not to just the body of knowledge that science has produced. In the modern world most of that can be looked up anyway. The essential experience that is needed is to see the way in which science works.
[...]one of the greatest lessons I think I learned about professional scientists… they are drowning in challenges but keep smiling, keep questioning, and keep persisting. Building in the necessity of that kind of resiliency can’t be faked.
What took place over the previous 12 months for myself and my students involved in the project was authentic learning. My students and I were interested in the project not because of a grade to receive at the end of the project nor because of a test that would assess our knowledge and determine our progression with respect to our peers.
NITARP is not about the answer, but instead about how to find the answer. It can be reinvigorating to return to that wonder about how and why

The application period is now closed for NITARP 2023. We will release our selection for the 2023 class at the 2023 January AAS.

AAS - 2021

Quotes

Related Teams