AAS - 2023

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. 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 2022 and 2023 NITARP teams attended the 2023 January AAS meeting in Seattle, WA. The 2022 class was presenting results and the 2023 class was starting up. We had alumni raise money to come back as well. We sent about 30 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here:

2022 Teams:

Ciambra et al., A More Complete List of YSO Candidates in AFGL 490
Benter et al., Survey of the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products (SEIP) Catalog for Potential Debris Disks Around Main Sequence M Class Stars
Bonham et al., NGSS Science and Engineering Practices in Secondary Education through Real Astronomical Research
Swigert et al., Teacher Roles within NITARP: a 13-month Research Collaboration

Alumni:

Granucci, "Does a Solar Telescope generate more interest in astronomy than Night Observing Telescope?" (talk)
Kniezewski, "To Rain or Not to Rain: Correlating GOES Flare Class and Coronal Rain Statistics" (poster and press release; student alumna!)

Quotes

The most interesting thing is just how impactful working with teammates/students is for your results and overall experience of the program. Constantly interacting every week and then seeing everyone in person drastically changes the research dynamic.
My (original) NITARP experience prompted me to immediately start a scientific research group (like a club) that met before and after school. In Tennessee, Scientific Research is an actual laboratory course complete with state standards, so I started teaching that course when I moved to Tennessee. This year, I was able to expand my course with funding from the Tennessee Rural STEM Collaborative. I followed the example of NITARP and have located subject-matter experts as mentors for the students for their self-selected projects. Nine of my students are taking their research projects to the Regeneron science fair entry event in east Tennessee, including my two NITARP students, who are investigating light variations of stars in NGC 1245. No one from Greene County Schools (my school district) has ever had students present research at this venue.
[NITARP] also changed my ideas about the people who are astronomers and how astronomy gets done. Astronomy, I realized, might be more dependent on other fields than any other branch of science (or study in general): you need geologists, physicists, chemists, biologists(!), meteorologists, and engineers to successfully pull off many astronomical projects. It’s important to build good relationships with these people who could make or break your project. Fortunately, it seems most of these people are passionate about what they do: they’re working there for a reason!
My students were inspiring during this project, even when frustrated. They wanted to keep plugging through even when it was hard.
One of my primary professional goals has always been to bring research into the classroom through my experiences. This has made me realize that it is possible to deliver those experiences directly to students. This will cause me to look further for these types of experiences that directly involve my students in research.

AAS - 2023

Quotes

Related Teams