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AAS - 2022

The Winter American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting is usually 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. At any given AAS, then, we could have two NITARP classes attending - those finishing up, and those getting started. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The 2020/21 and 2022 NITARP teams had planned to attend the 2022 January AAS meeting in Salt Lake City, UT. However, the meeting was entirely cancelled due to COVID. We still have this special article about the NITARP teams finishing and starting up. All of the posters from the 2020/21 teams we presented are here. Most of the 2020/21 teams came instead to the June 2022 AAS meeting in Pasadena, CA instead. Those posters were iPosters, so the PDF versions that are here are still the versions from Jan 2022, but the numbers are from June 2022.

The 2022 class got started on Jan 9, just before when the winter AAS would have been held. There are two teams in 2022.

Quotes

  • NITARP is the shining example of science outreach to public education, and should be a model for similar federal entities, such as CDC, DOE and even the NEA. Any entity currently providing grants could make their impact more palpable by sharing their work and culture directly with high school teachers and students as NITARP does. A program like NITARP turns teachers into adult representatives of the discipline at its heart; a program like NITARP makes every day in the classroom a Career Day.
  • The NITARP experience is guided by Jedi Masters… they perceive the force and guide it to flow through the process in harmony with the dynamic interactions between the science, the data, the people, and the products that all need to dance together to achieve a meaningful result. The impact on the participants of NITARP is significant, measurable, positive and spiritually inspiring. We come out the “other side” of the NITARP experience a changed person in ways that we never could have created on our own… so THANK YOU, Thank You, thank you for the wonderful opportunity that is NITARP.
  • [student:] After NITARP, I am definitely going to look out for more authentic experiences (especially when it comes to research) where I can do new, original work in a self-enriching manner. There are a lot of programs out there, many of which I have gone through, that are very structured and “follow the procedure” type experiences. NITARP is nothing like those experiences and teaches you to be innovative, creative, and original, and I’ll definitely be looking for more experiences like it.
  • Look at where my kids are now. Their resumes are leaps and bounds better. Their confidence in talking with other students, teachers, and scientists has gone off the charts. We really changed their paths.
  • My experience with NITARP has reinforced that the essential traits of an astronomer are a willingness to question the “obvious”, wonder about what is not yet known, and persistently (and openly) recognize the limitations of your present understanding, knowledge, skills, tools… and then do something to overcome the limitations. It has also become crystal clear just how small of a community the world of professional astronomers really is at present. It was also amazing to see how openly the data is shared for anyone with the time, talent, inclination, etc to pursue astronomical inquiry. And putting these last two together… there is SO much data filling the bucket that there is no shortage of questions to ponder nor data with which to pursue resolving them.

Related Teams

AAS - 2022