• NASA
  • IPAC

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:

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

 

Quotes

  • [student:] I never knew how much astronomers worked with computer programs and data, and I think this helped me gain a new sort of respect for them: this is not easy work!
  • I am pleasantly surprised with the amount of interpersonal and professional aptitude, knowledge and skills that the kiddos developed through the NITARP process. Looking back on who they were a year ago, the growth is phenomenal.
  • The NITARP experience, with its focus on the teacher, and the allowance of inclusion of students, is a powerful engine for accomplishing [sharing how science works]. It ensures that the limited capacity of the program is leveraged through the many years, and multiple classes taught by a single teacher. The involvement of students binds these teachers to embrace participation to a depth and degree that makes the experience understandable to their future students by providing the evidence that a small number of their current students are getting it… it makes sense as it is occurring. And the passage through the whole process from unlimited brainstorming, to focused questioning, selection of a research topic, literature search, proposal, research, analysis, visualization, communication and defense of your results allows one to know, first person, how this engine works.
  • 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:] The first time getting to use the IRSA Viewer software along with DS9 really opened my eyes to the professional realm of astronomy. Having understood and interacted with such advanced programs blew away my expectations. As a student I am conditioned to always expect a modified version of data or curriculum fitted to accommodate a learning situation, but the NITARP program gave me that taste of what it all leads to at the end of my educational career.

Related Teams

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